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Identity Cards Bill

My Lords, my noble friend Lord Phillips and the noble Lord, Lord Crickhowell, referred to the Labour Party manifesto from the previous election. Looking at the Bill, one sees that of 45 clauses, three relate to identity cards. The offences in Clauses 27 to 32 relate to the register. It is about setting up a national identity register to which the identity card is an adjunct. If one looks at the manifesto, under the heading ““Strong and secure borders””, the Labour Party set out that,"““Across the world there is a drive to increase the security of identity documents and we cannot be left behind. From next year we are introducing biometric ‘ePassports’. It makes sense to provide citizens with an equally secure identity card to protect them at home from identity theft and clamp down on illegal working and fraudulent use of public services. We will introduce ID cards””—" that phrase is set out in large type on page 55—"““including biometric data like fingerprints, backed up by a national register and rolling out initially on a voluntary basis as people renew their passports””." The emphasis in the manifesto is entirely on identity cards as some form of home passport. It does not set out a compulsory scheme for the introduction of a national identity register, with all the requirements set out in the various schedules. So the Government cannot rely on the manifesto at the election as authorising the scheme that they now put forward in the Bill.