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Identity Cards Bill

I strongly support my noble friend’s amendment. I do not make the concession that he did, however, that the commissioner should not be the front-line recipient of complaints. If the commissioner’s office is not broad enough to take on that role, who will become the frontline recipient of complaints? Every person over the age of 16 will be required to register within the foreseeable future. One can immediately see the type of complaints that will arise as to the accuracy of the register, the way in which it is used, and the invasion of privacy and confidentiality that I spoke about a moment ago. It can have no comparison with complaints made by holders of passports. Those complaints are confined to a very small area of public business, but this area is going to be huge. When it is said that the register is going to give work to lawyers, all I can say is that when this Government close one door, another huge door opens. That is what we always say in the legal profession. It is an area of legislation that will create a great amount of work. We will welcome it and assist the public with it in due course. There has to be a system of complaints. You cannot expect individuals to approach Members of Parliament or Members of Parliament to receive ““front-line complaints””—to use again my noble friend’s phrase—and to pass them on to the Parliamentary Ombudsman. That is far too small an office to take on the resolution of difficulties that come about in relation to the register and its operation. The Act must provide some mechanism and it totally fails to do so. Not only is the whole concept of the Act unworkable; when it comes to the complaints that are going to arise from it, the people of this country will quickly see that they have no immediate point of redress and will act accordingly.