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Identity Cards Bill

Before the noble Lord sits down, I rather felt that what he said related more to the noble Baroness’s amendments than mine. My amendments are all couched in a discretionary format; they would not require any compulsory allowances, but would simply enable the Government, in regulation-making, to make provision for financial assistance in appropriate cases and for home visits. The noble Lord spoke about disabled and vulnerable people, but a whole group of people will be neither of those things—just poor. The 15 per cent of people who do not have passports will tend to be what are called the underclass, being poor and deprived. It will create huge problems if the Government are not able to take note of the fact that to travel an hour on public transport to one of the centres may simply be financially beyond the resources of the family concerned. I do not see any comparability with people taking their driving tests. We are talking about compulsory registration for the last 15 per cent of the population. For the Government to deny themselves the power to facilitate that on a means-tested basis seems like scoring an own goal. I should be grateful if the noble Lord would think about this further. I do not see why he opposes such an amendment.