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Identity Cards Bill

This is an interesting matter about liability, in relation to which many problems arise with ID cards and suchlike. If you use as a means of identification a passport that for some reason is a fake or false, there is no liability. I do not think that it falls back on to Her Majesty’s Government at all. In a funny way, that is why people are free to use it as a perfectly good identity document. From that point of view, the ID card could be treated in a very similar way. If it looks okay, it is probably okay and is probably better than many of the other forms of identification out there—it is certainly as good as a passport—and therefore would be very useful for proving identity on a ““flash and go”” basis. Matters change when we come to the national identity register. On that register there is a good deal of other information, which may lead someone down the wrong path and in the wrong direction. If, for instance, two numbers are transposed in the linked numbers in linked databases, which misidentifies someone on the national insurance number register so pensions do not get paid or something else does not happen, the Government should be held liable for that. Inferences will be made from those connections. If the data are incorrect, the Government should be held liable for that because it could affect people’s lives drastically. It is different if a user is just making a judgment that a card looks all right and that the likeness appears to be correct; the national identity register information is critical here.