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Identity Cards Bill

I am grateful to the Minister for almost showing sympathy towards the amendment. I dread to think how long I will have to wait until the right action is taken. I certainly hope that it will not be 100 years. I would not want my noble friend Lord Onslow to think that I expect the register to last 100 years—certainly not in its current form. I hope that we will be able to improve the way in which the Bill may operate during its progress through this House. I know that the Minister intends to make extremely helpful remarks. He said that I should wait until the register has matured. We will see how it is operating and whether information may at some stage be released—whether after 100 years or less. How would that be achieved within the provisions of the Bill? Is the Minister, for example, saying that Clause 3(4) has the power to enable information to be released? Is he saying that the Secretary of State could adjudge that it would be no longer,"““consistent with the statutory purposes for [information] to be so recorded””," at a later date? That would not necessarily release the information. It would be held and recorded, but it would not be released. Where is the mechanism here for that information to be made public and to be released at a later date? I appreciate that it is late and that this is a consequent question to my amendment. If the Minister is not in a position to answer today, I am very happy for him to write to me. This is not a matter on which I intend to divide the Committee. This is genuinely a probing matter to see how information may be later released. An answer may be winging its way to the Minister.