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Immigration (Biometric Registration) (Amendment) Regulations 2009

My Lords, it will not surprise the Minister that, having opposed the very concept of ID cards, we shall continue to oppose their rollout. Choosing to introduce them to the categories of people who do not even have a vote here is a backdoor way of bringing them in. I was surprised to hear the Minister claim their usefulness as a tool. I think that he said that since November three people had been apprehended. Given the cost of implementing this scheme, three does not seem to be a very great number. We object because we do not think that this is necessary or cost-effective. The Minister referred to the categories of people, but they all have passports. One downside is that the scheme is likely to be divisive. Perhaps the Minister could remind us of the penalties for any of those categories of people who do not apply for ID cards. The Minister in the other place said that the cards would be useful for employers. That in itself produces a difficulty. Will employers ask anyone who just looks foreign to produce their ID card? If proof of identity was needed, people could produce a passport. The whole idea is anti-cohesion, which the Government spend so much time talking about. The Government claim that ID cards will help to protect domestic workers from abuse. That is an extreme claim. There are many reasons why domestic workers suffer abuse, but I think that the claim of the Minister in the other place that ID cards will help to alleviate that is definitely a claim too far. The noble Baroness, Lady Hanham, has posed several useful questions, so I shall not rehearse those. My main question to the Minister is: how on earth does he think that this scheme can possibly be cost-effective?