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Identity Cards Bill

moved Amendment No. 9:"Page 2, line 12, at end insert—" ““(   )   the number of any identity card with which he has been issued by another nation, together with the date and place of its issue;”” The noble Baroness said: My Lords, this amendment inserts a paragraph into subsection (5), which lists what will constitute a registrable fact under this clause. This will include the number of any ID card with which an individual has been issued by another nation, together with the date and place of its issue. The question of what information overseas visitors should be required to supply, and when, is central not only to the functioning of the scheme but also to the public consent in the scheme. I have no doubt that most British people think that the main purpose of the scheme is to control the activities of potential terrorists coming from abroad to settle here, and do not understand that short-term settlers are to be among the very few people not to be included. Indeed, Clause 2—which we will come to—is explicitly drafted to exclude these people. It seems an odd idea to spend billions of pounds—we should not forget that £10 billion would build 430 new secondary schools—to run a surveillance system of UK citizens while excluding short-term foreign visitors. The schedule to the Bill implies that the register may record the number of a passport or identity card issued abroad, but should it necessarily do so? If any UK citizen who does not have a passport wants to leave our country—that will probably involve 600,000 people next year, rising to 4.5 million a year by 2008—is going to be made to attend an interview centre, be questioned for at least 10 minutes and be fingerprinted and photographed before being allowed to get out of Britain, then surely those seeking to enter our country must—not may—provide this basic information. This is not being demanded from the outset. Can the Minister also explain how it will operate in the EU context? Three EU nations—Denmark, Latvia and Ireland—do not have ID cards. Is the Minister saying that Mrs Adams of Wolverhampton will, from next year, under government proposals, have to buy an ID card as a tax on leaving Britain if she wants to visit her daughter in Canada, but that Mrs Adams from Dublin will not be subject to the regime at all if she wants to visit London? I do not quite understand this logic. What exactly will be expected of overseas visitors, and EU visitors in particular, in what circumstances and when? I beg to move.