---

Identity Cards Bill

I shall make a couple of points arising out of ministerial responses. They relate to the purpose of the Bill. Its second stated purpose is the prevention and detection of crime. Much of the prevention of crime has to come from the ordinary citizen or employer. Why are we excluding such details as the police national computer number? Once a conviction is spent, you have the right to have those details erased. But it would be quite reasonable to have an index which flags up some concern that perhaps should be checked. The card would then have some purpose. The trouble with the card is that it is going to be rolled out first to the ABC1s—to people with passports and driving licences, and to the better-off in society. It will not catch the disaffected people who are probably going to be the terrorists and the criminals. Their records and all 10 fingerprints are already on the police national database. The purpose of the Bill—the prevention and the detection of crime—would be better served if a biometric index were fed straight into the police national computer, without the need for the national identity card. If the national identity card is going to be useful for the prevention of crime, we should revisit what information will be included on it. Otherwise, we should index straight into the police national computer and think about ID cards later.