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Identity Cards Bill

My Lords, I am sorry if I am not as clear as I believe I am being. The chip will only contain what appears on the face of the card—when you get the card, the information will appear on the face—and then the technical and biometric information. The categories of information to be held on the chip will be set out in regulations. So it will be very clear what information the card contains—there it will be on the face of the card. One should be able to look at it and, with the naked eye, determine what information is covered. On the ability to access and check the current information, a web portal will be available. It will be kept up-to-date and will include information regarding verification requests made in the previous six to 12 months. So, if you wanted to monitor on a continuous basis, every six months you would go in and look to see what is on there, and you would be able to do so free of charge. If you wanted further or other information for some reason, you can use the formal procedure, which will be available under the DPA. You can pay £10 and get the whole screed of information that you want. The £10 is seen at the moment as a reasonable fee to pay in relation to the Data Protection Act. I do not think that it would be unreasonable to expect the same procedures to be adopted. Those who have the advantage of a computer could do it on a daily basis, if they so wished.