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Immigration (Biometric Registration) (Civil Penalty Code of Practice) Order 2008

I thank noble Lords for the useful input. I thank the noble Viscount for his support on this measure. I am sure that we will have a much longer debate on the more general question of ID cards, which is still to come. It is important to say that we regard the integrity and security of our border and nation extremely seriously. In general terms, what has come over from the pilot study and from all our consultation is that the people whom we have talked to, including students and spouses, have welcomed this and found it very useful. I mentioned there being 50 different forms; this is something that has utility for them. On whether this covers EU nationals, no, it does not. EU nationals are completely separate. They are not part of this equation. The noble Lord made a point about this being something that would affect only BMEs and that there were real dangers of this causing major problems. These people cannot be stopped by the police and asked to present their identity card; that is not how these things work. They will use them when they do specific things, make claims for specific things and that sort of thing. There is absolutely nothing within this to say that people have to carry these things round and that the police can stop them and say, ““Show me your identity card””. The fear that we will cause a division in society is just not real. I do not believe that that will be the case at all.