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Identity Cards Bill

My Lords, I am pleased that at least on this occasion I have given a modicum of satisfaction. I say to the noble Lord, Lord Selsdon, and to the noble Baroness, Lady Anelay, that the power to make regulations about addresses to be regarded as ““places of residence”” and ““principal place of residence”” is provided under Clause 43(10), as the noble Earl, Lord Erroll, has just indicated. I hope I have made it clear that students will have the option of keeping on the register their home address or a term-time address or both. That will give them some security. Some students, as the noble Baroness knows, are fortunate enough to stay at one address for their three or four years of study, but some have to change all the time as the rent goes up and down and according to what they can or cannot afford. Therefore, there is some mix and match. These provisions have been cast in a way that responds to the reality of people’s lives. We hope that it will meet that. The noble Lord, Lord Crickhowell, is right to say that I made reference to paragraph 1(h). That referred to the paragraph on previous addresses under the old draft. It was paragraph 1(h). The Bill was changed to remove the previous addresses which will be recorded in historic information in paragraph 5(a). I believe that that is how the confusion occurred. If I did that at the wrong stage, I certainly apologise. I think that the Bill was actually changed in the Commons and not here, but I am unsure about that. That is the reason for the difference, though, if I may respectfully say so, it is a difference without a difference. The noble Earl suggested that the penalty was £10,000. It is not—it is £1,000. I hope that the noble Earl will remember that on the last occasion when we debated this, I spoke about the ease with which we hoped addresses could be changed—the facilities of trying to do it online and making it swift and easy—so that it will not be too cumbersome or burdensome. The noble Earl also raised the issue of ““cognate expression””, which means a variant of ““reside””, including ““resident””. It does not really affect ““domicile””. We think that we have alighted on the correct phrase. On the point raised by the noble Baroness, Lady Carnegy of Lour, we shall do everything we can to bring clarity, just as we do with passports. The noble Baroness will know that there are guidance notes to help one through that. Another advantage that we shall have is that there will be an interview to try to ensure that the information that goes on to the register is correct. People will be helped. The whole import of this is not to trick or confuse people; it is to try to get from them the just information that they will need to be able to identify themselves accurately in the future. We hope that that will be done sympathetically and that it will take into account the reality of the way in which people live their lives, as the noble Baroness, Lady Anelay, has described in the past. If one has a peripatetic existence, it is not surprising that one does not remember exactly all the addresses where one has lived. The noble Lord, Lord Selsdon, gave us a graphic example of why that is the case. We think that the amendments meet the situation. I understand the issues raised by the noble Lord, Lord Phillips of Sudbury. We think that the combination of the regulations, the guidance notes that will go out and the interview will enable us to achieve the correct balance. The amendments that I have tabled today will help us to do that. I absolutely agree with the concerns that were raised by noble Lords in the debates on these issues and that is why we have responded to them in a practical and pragmatic way through these amendments.