Identity Cards Bill

I can give my hon. Friend an absolute assurance about that. The measure is one of the building blocks in the Bill to which the hon. Member for Stone referred. I assure my hon. Friend that it will not be switched on or enacted until the second piece of primary legislation has been passed to bring in compulsion. We said several times that although the super-affirmative procedure applies to the new procedure, before a move to compulsion takes place we and the House will want to be satisfied that implementation of the initial phase of the identity card scheme has achieved significant coverage of the population so that compulsion would have an impact on only the relatively small number of people who had yet to register for and obtain an identity card. We would also want to be satisfied that there continued to be clear support for identity cards, that no vulnerable group would be disadvantaged, that the scheme had contributed to meeting the aims outlined in clause 1, and that the technology supporting the identity card scheme was working and trusted. All those matters will be reviewed before the introduction of primary legislation to flick on the switch for compulsion. If we go down the road suggested on costs, which we will address later, the six-monthly report to the House that accompanies the review will take us to a point at which we will have all the information that we require when we consider primary legislation on compulsion.