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Identity Cards Bill

That is not right. The commitment was for minimum standards. If—which is not admitted—any country chooses to have an identity card, that card should comply with certain minimum standards so that it can be used with confidence throughout the Union. The commitment does not oblige us to have an identity card; it creates certain safeguards so that other European countries which choose to have an identity card have an appropriately high standard for the integrity of that card. In that way, we can be confident that when the card is used by another European citizen coming here it is a genuine card and one upon which we can rely. It is in our interests to ensure that countries which choose to have an ID card do so robustly and with integrity.