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Identity Cards Bill

My Lords, like the noble Lord, Lord Stoddart of Swindon, I have deep reservations about this Bill on grounds of principle. Nevertheless, I have some sympathy with the view of the noble Lord, Lord Soley, that costs are dependent on the technology to be used. Accordingly, I shall follow up on the opening remarks of my noble friend Lady Noakes on the gateway review process. I note that various organisations, notably the IT magazine Computer Weekly, have resorted to the Freedom of Information Act to elicit information about the status of a variety of IT procurement projects across government. So far as I am aware, the identity cards project is one of the few projects, if not the only one, where the relevant information has not been forthcoming. As your Lordships will be aware, the whole point of the gateway review process is to obviate the inherent risks in IT procurement by categorising various stages of any given project via the mechanism of a traffic light system. If a green signal is given, it implies that the project is in good order. If red is given, urgent remedial action is required. Needless to say, this is relevant to the ongoing viability of the project. Yet, not only do we not know whether ID cards have been given a red, green or amber light, we do not even know to which of the process’s six stages it has been taken thus far. It is impossible to make rational judgments on the viability, affordability and proportionality of the scheme without this information. Nevertheless, the justification for refusing to release the information is, as far as I am aware, rooted in issues of commercial confidentiality. Perhaps I am being unnecessarily obtuse, but I simply cannot conceive of how the release of appropriate information about which stage of the gateway process the ID card scheme has reached, and the status of each stage within the traffic light system, could impinge upon commercial confidentiality. Therefore, I invite, indeed, urge, the Minister to provide some insight about that to enable us to scrutinise the Bill properly. Without the reassurance of that sort of information, and wider information about costs, it is little wonder that the concerns and anxieties of noble Lords, not least those of the noble Lord, Lord Wright of Richmond, are provoked.