Identity Cards Bill

It is precisely because we do not want people running off and making a bomb at the expense of the taxpayer that we are proceeding as we are. As I said earlier, we recognise the tension between running, and getting best value from, a procurement process and the need to be open and accountable by putting as much information as possible in the public domain. Those are two conflicting aims, but in the amendment tabled by my right hon. Friend the Member for Holborn and St. Pancras we begin to see a way to resolve them. I agree with my hon. Friend the Member for Stroud (Mr. Drew) inasmuch as we want to put information into the public domain as early as possible, but without fettering our ability to secure the cost and keep it down when we go to market. A person would not ordinarily say how much they had to spend before trying to obtain the best price from a supplier, and that principle holds good for this exercise.