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Identity Cards Bill

My Lords, I am grateful to the noble Baroness for explaining her amendment so clearly. Essentially, she inquires why the Secretary of State might authorise someone to have another person’s card without their agreement. It would certainly not be normal practice for the Secretary of State to authorise anyone to have another person’s ID card without their agreement, but there may well be some circumstances—the noble Baroness has imagined some—in which an ID card is held without the specific authority of the holder and where it would be inappropriate to require its surrender as soon as practicable. For example—this is an example in which I have been interested for a while—the card may be held by the police or another enforcement agency as part of a continuing inquiry. A widely known need for that power would be the case of football banning orders. Clause 13 would allow the Secretary of State to order the surrender to him of an ID card. This could be held by the police or appropriate authorities with the permission of the Secretary of State but not necessarily with the permission of the individual concerned. Indeed, he may be very unhappy about it as it is likely to be withheld from him along with his passport where there is an obligation to surrender the passport. In those kinds of law enforcement cases we would expect someone to hold the document, not necessarily with the permission of the person to whom the card has been issued. The Secretary of State might also authorise that the ID card of a person who has died be retained by the next of kin. There may be circumstances like that where, for practical reason, the card would be held by someone to whom it had not been directly issued.