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Identity Cards Bill

I thank the Minister for calming my troubled breast—an almost anaesthetic calming of my troubled breast, so full was the reply. However, she will not take it amiss if I say, lawyer to lawyer, that consoling the great British public by reference to the innumerable cases on common law is not what we seek to achieve in this place. I thought that the little word ““express”” would make it clear to anyone who read it that there was a need for that. I take what she has said and ask about the provision that she mentioned—subsection (5)(a)—which allows the Secretary of State to make regulations as to,"““how an authority for the purposes of subsection (1)(a) is to be given””." Are the Government minded to do anything on that at the moment, or is that just something that will be there if events show that there is a problem with ““authority”” and ““consent””? Secondly, I do not believe that the Committee has given this very important clause as much scrutiny as it might have done. The Minister also referred, very importantly, to subsection (6) which, in effect, allows the Secretary of State to create a regime within which the private sector can access the limited amount of data that is available under the clause. It is a hugely important clause. Have the Government got anywhere on that? All of us will be relying on an astute policy and provision by the Government under that subsection to ensure that this bit of the Bill works happily for all concerned, particularly the citizen.