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Identity Cards Bill

My Lords, I have a lot of sympathy with my noble friend but do not totally agree with her amendment. She is right, because she has raised an important issue in that nobody should be entitled to enter without proof of identity. We are aware of the number of people who have slipped through that net over the years. It is a matter of considerable concern. The question is therefore how that proof of identity, entitling a foreign resident or foreigner to enter the United Kingdom, can be converted into some form of data that may be retained on the national register. With that, depending on the length of stay which he has in the United Kingdom, might have normally gone the requirement that he should carry his national piece of identity, whatever that may be, with him at all times. Within the EEA, almost all biometric cards that go with a passport will be relatively standardised. However, in other countries, the pieces of identification that I have had to look at when people have asked to open a bank account or withdraw funds run to something that was perhaps run under a hosepipe for month or sat under a camel. Proof of identity usually never has a number that we could relate to it. If we are seeking to collect the numbers of a piece of identification, we should surely have within that the place of origin and the date of issue. Surely, above all, it should have that proof of identity that was issued to an entrant upon the moment he entered the United Kingdom.