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Identity Cards Bill

My Lords, echoing the words of the noble Lord, Lord Phillips of Sudbury, I welcome the half of the loaf that has been offered by the Government, but stress that the half they have not granted we think is important. Concerns about how the audit trail may be accessed and used were core to many noble Lords’ speeches—certainly to mine—on Second Reading and thereafter. The noble Lord, Lord Phillips, is right to say that despite the careful attention given by the House during six days in Committee, only on Report were we advised about a particular way to amend Schedule 1 that might meet our concerns about the audit trail. It is a measure of the great assistance that we receive from those who advise us out with this House that we managed to turn that amendment round within an hour of the closing time for tabling amendments that day. We wanted to ensure that we kept within the rules for tabling amendments and not having manuscript amendments, but that meant, ultimately, we were to fall foul of some of the changes in procedure for Third Reading amendments that we now face. I notice that noble Baroness, Lady Farrington, is looking concerned. It would have been difficult for us to table an amendment today within the correct rules that would have been robust enough for us to have argued the case, divided and met within the amendment or the concerns expressed by the Government on Report—especially those that have now been expressed in a letter that we only received during the past 24 hours. I do not complain about that, because the Home Office team has done its absolute utmost throughout to ensure that we received replies as soon as possible. However, we are now more all aware of how speedy we need to be in our responses—we will make that clear to those who brief us—and how wary we must be in what we bring to Third Reading. I am therefore grateful to the Government for tabling the amendment, because it means that they are able to fulfil their commitment on Third Reading. We shall watch what happens to the audit trail if and when the Bill is implemented in this exact form.