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Identity Cards Bill

I also support the amendment. Notwithstanding the comments of my noble friend Lord Caithness, I do wonder whether subsection (3) of the amendment now has any relevance. As I understand it, and I hope the noble Baroness will be able to confirm this, under the UK presidency what actually happened last month is that a ministerial decision was approved, and that ministerial decision stated categorically that, come 2010, all member states were committed to introducing a biometric ID card across the board all over Europe. So I do wonder whether the capacity of this Parliament on this particular issue has been circumvented by a ministerial decision. I hope, perhaps rather less forcefully than my noble friend Lord Caithness has put it, that the noble Baroness will be able to clarify the point.