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Identity Cards Bill

My Lords, Amendment No. 52A would prevent an ID card being issued as a combined document with a designated document. We could not proceed with our plans to designate, for example, residence permits, issued to foreign nationals so that they would in themselves be both residence permits and ID cards. We have a number of reasons for wishing to do that. First, it is planned in any event to improve the standard of the residence permit, so that instead of being a sticker in the back of a passport it is a separate card with biometric identifiers. As a residence permit is a document that non-EU foreign nationals already need to obtain if seeking to remain in the United Kingdom—as a student, or to work here—it is sensible to designate residence permits. It would in theory be possible to issue a separate ID card along with a residence permit, but that would be unnecessary duplication and much less convenient for the individual than receiving a single card that serves all identification needs. Incidentally, there is a precedent for that approach in the rest of Europe. Those EU countries that issue identity cards to their own nationals, such as France or Germany, also issue residence permits as an equivalent form of identity document to foreign nationals resident in those countries. Some have suggested that in future it might make sense to combine a driving licence with an ID card. Again that would not be possible unless we retain the power in the Bill for the designated document itself to become the ID card. Amendment No. 52J would require a person to indicate his wish to have an identity card before he or she could be issued with an identity card in accordance with Clause 8(4). I can reassure noble Lords that there is no intention to issue identity cards to people who have not applied for one. They will be issued only to individuals who are either entitled to them, as set out in Clause 2(2), or if not entitled to be issued with one, in the very particular circumstances to be made in regulations under Clause 8(5). That might include people who are not United Kingdom residents, but for whom there might be good reasons to have their details entered on the register and to be issued with an identity card, such as for example, someone living in Ireland who works in Northern Ireland, or someone who lives in France but works in England. The key point, however, is that subsection (6) of Clause 8 must be complied with before an identity card can be issued. An application for an identity card will have to be made before an identity card can be issued to an individual. As subsection (4) of Clause 8 must be read in conjunction with subsection (6), there can be no question of issuing an identity card to anyone who does not apply for one. On that basis there is no need to add the wording in Amendment No. 52J to Clause 8(4) as, before being issued with an identity card, the person concerned will already have made an application for one. I hope that it is clear from what I have said that, first, we need to retain the power for designated documents to be an ID card, and secondly, that no one who has not made an application in the first instance will be issued with an identity card, in line with Clause 8(6). I ask the noble Baroness to withdraw Amendment No. 52A, and not to move Amendment No. 52J.