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Identity Cards Bill

My Lords, I support the noble Lord’s amendment. I agree that this should be uncontentious, because we are all trying to achieve the same thing as the Government. It is just a matter of how the definition is made clear. As the noble Lord, Lord Phillips, said, at the moment there appears to be no direct cross-reference between Schedule 1 and Clause 1—so do we need belt and braces? As the noble Lord says, the Government have made it clear that it is not their intention that DNA should come within the remit of the Bill. My concern is that in another place, and sometimes here, the debate has become rather hung up on DNA as being a bit of a mantra. We have said that we accept that that is the Government’s stated intention at this stage with regard to DNA. There are two issues related to that matter. One could be very cynical—though I will not be—and say that at one stage the Prime Minister said he would not have ID cards, but he has now found he believes it appropriate to have them. At this stage the Government have a very firm intention that there should be no DNA included in the register and believe that the phraseology prevents it, so there is no need for the further linkage that the noble Lord is trying to obtain between Schedule 1 and Clause 1. First, one needs to have that assurance in the Bill, because one does not know how this Government, or any other in the future, may determine what is politic, in the old-fashioned sense of ““politic””. Secondly, one does not know what changes will be made with regard to science over the coming years. If there are changes we would need to have full and proper debate before any such matters could come into the Bill, and I am not sure that any major issues such as that could be adequately dealt with by way of discussions on orders. None of this Bill is easy to get right from the point of view of drafting, but if we can do something here that makes it clear that it achieves exactly what we all want, I really do not see the harm. I hope the Minister might be able to consider accepting this. I know the noble Lord, Lord Phillips, said he considered other words that might be produced. He has made a very helpful suggestion here. If the Minister says that something else would do this better, I would be happy to look at that. But I think something needs to be teased out here.