Identity Cards Bill

I wish to speak to amendment (a), which I tabled in lieu of Lords amendments Nos. 1, 68, 69 and 70. My amendment would impose a requirement on the Government to report every six months to the House on the latest estimated cost of the ID scheme, if it goes ahead. I do not support the Lords amendments because they deal exclusively with the initial estimate. History suggests that it is not the initial estimates that are the problem but the actual costs. Although the Government support my amendment, I believe that the ID scheme will not provide value for money. It will not bring an end to terrorism, and if a great deal of credit fraud affects the credit card and debit card industry it is not the taxpayer’s job to help those commercial organisations. We ought to behave as the Victorians did with cheques. There was a simple law on cheques—if someone did not sign the cheque and the bank paid out, the loss was the bank’s, not the account holder. If we took that robust attitude on debit and credit cards we would be a lot better off. You can bet your boots that those commercial organisations, which want us to bail them out when they suffer from fraud, would quickly find a way of stopping the problem.