Identity Cards Bill

My Lords, I want to pick up on a point made by the noble Lord, who I know has a distinguished background in business as well as in politics. With the complex technology that we are discussing here and the systems that will have to be put in place to support it, surely an assumed introduction date of 2009 is not a long timescale. In order to procure the correct technology at the right prices, I would argue that three years is quite a reasonable period. Perhaps, subsequently, it could be accelerated. I imagine that the Government are looking at the middle of the decade, say, 2014 or 2015, before the compulsory introduction of cards. Perhaps that could be foreshortened, depending on the success of the technology.