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Identity Cards Bill

I shall arch over the point that most Members of the House become the younger sons of Marquises almost daily; in my case, I am called Lord Nicholas Crickhowell, which is wholly incorrect. I turn to another issue that I have only just spotted; namely, that subsection (7)(a) asks for our full names and subsection (7)(b) refers to,"““other names by which he is or has previously been known””." I thus toy with the difficulty of identifying the difference between the requirement to register a full name and to register a considerable variety of other names. Usually, I am never known by my first name, but I am sometimes asked to list all my names and then it appears. My wife complicates the issue. Her Christian name is Ankaret, but she is almost always known to her friends as either Ann or Annie. One of the reasons I changed my name on coming to this House was that she was totally fed up of being one of about 10 Ann Edwards in our local health service register. That poses the difficulty that will face us if we are asked to register other names by which we have been known. It is absolutely clear that we must have some certainty about this matter and must understand what the Government propose to do about it. I would therefore like an explanation of why, in the most important part of the clause—subsection (7)(a)—we are asked to register our full name and then suddenly thrown into the realm of uncertainty by being asked to register a string of possible alternatives.