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Identity Cards Bill

My Lords, it is absolutely right that we should be having this discussion this afternoon on the estimated costs of the scheme. I am sorry that the Bill has come to us without having been through the Commons and examined by them. After all, the House of Commons are the guardian of the taxpayers’ pockets. I would have thought that they would send to us a Bill that had been properly costed, especially bearing in mind the various estimates made, ranging from about £3.1 billion to £27 billion. I would have thought that the House of Commons would want to know all about that before they submitted the Bill to this House for consideration. I have expressed myself as opposed to the Bill in principle and on cost. I opposed it on principle, as did many or probably all of the present Government when they were in opposition. I just happen to believe as I did when I supported the Opposition in this House and for a time in another place. It is essential that when we are dealing with taxpayers’ money—because it is taxpayers’ money, not government money—we should make sure that we use it properly and that we will achieve the objectives proposed. But in a Bill of this sort, which alters the arrangements and relationships between government and governed, it is important that we ensure that there is wide agreement between the political parties. It is quite clear that there is no such agreement. If we are not careful, we may be throwing money away. Yesterday the Leader of the Opposition, who might one day be in government, said that he would scrap the ID scheme. The Liberal Democrats are against the scheme and would co-operate in scrapping it. We may spend billions of pounds in starting a scheme that has been agreed to by only one political party, which may not be in government for much longer than a few years. I object to the Government spending money, on the basis that that money is not being well spent for a long-term project. I support this amendment because it at least has the merit of ensuring that the House of Commons, if they agree to it, require the Government to produce realistic estimates which can be supported. We know all about cost overruns, which have been referred to several times during this debate. The NHS computer programme has been mentioned in previous debates. It was estimated to cost £1 billion and it is now estimated to cost £30 billion. We are also made aware virtually every day of the costs of the Child Support Agency, which was supposed to garner £400 million per annum in benefit to the Treasury. It now costs the Treasury hundreds of millions of pounds every year to run. So we really must be careful. I hope that this amendment will be passed so that the House of Commons can properly do their duty and ensure that taxpayers’ money is spent not wastefully, but productively.