Business of the House

Earlier, my right hon. Friend the Member for Maidenhead (Mrs. May) asked the Leader of the House about the progress of the Government's ID card scheme, but may I press the right hon. and learned Lady to take her reply a little further? Her response was that the Government had always planned to phase in the cards, but the whole point about the question posed by my right hon. Friend was that that phased approach seems to be slipping. Does the Leader of the House agree that that slippage is adding fuel to the fires among Opposition Members, who have said that the scheme is unworkably complex and expensive and that it cannot work? Does not the fact that the scheme is delayed merely prove that point?