Responses from the House

Dear Mr Scott,

I enclose a copy of a further response I have received from the Home Office which I hope you find helpful in addressing the issues you asked me to raise on your behalf.

With best wishes,

Yours sincerely,

Rt. Hon. Tessa Jowell MP

I'd actually asked her not to vote for the Bill, but there y'go.

Dear Tessa,

Thank you for your further letter of 22 September on behalf of Mt Simon Scott [...] about indentity cards.

Firstly, I can confirm for Mr Scott, on the issue of "off-shoring" IT elements of the proposed Identity Cards Scheme, the EU procurement regulations place a legal requirement upon the Home Office not to preclude a contractor on the basis of their ocuntry of operations and the Home Office will award conrtacts on the basis of best value for money. However in the case of identity cards, security considerations particular to the requirements may preclude contracts from being performed outside the UK, at this tage of requirement deginition however, no decision has been made on this.

Secondly, I wish to clarify for Mr Scott that the Bill has been drafted to enable flexibility in the applications procedure to cater for different requirements from applicants. Cause 18 was drafted to make clear that there may be no requirement on individuals by organisations to produce an identity card as the only acceptable proof of identity before it is compulsory for that person to register. I can assure Mr Scott that we have made amendments to the Bill to include prohibition on requiring identity checks on the Register before compulsion as well as on requiring cards themselves.

In addition, following race and refugee organisations' responses to the draft Bill constitution, we have amended the Bill:

• to extend the remit of the National Identity Scheme Commissioner;
• clarifying in clause 14 the information that may be provided;
• amended the false documents offence so it does not include those who knowingly use false documentation to enter the UK to apply for asylum here which is lawful under Article 31 of the 1951 Convention.

However, we do know that most concerns are not over the Bill but about how the scheme will be used in practice.

All I can do is reassure Mr Scott that the Government's proposals are designed to safeguard, not erode, civil liberties by protecting people's true identity against fraud and by enabling them to prove their identity more easily when accessing public or private services.

I note Mr Scott's comments opposing the proposed Identity Cards Scheme and am grateful for the time he has taken to comment further on this issue.

Best wishes,

Andy

pp Charles Clarke.

No engagement with most of my criticisms, just a "don't know" over the off-shoring issue and the usual groundless flim-flam about identity fraud. I'm not sure what the race and refugee bit was about either, except the possibility that it refers somehow to the issue of illegal immigrants having contagious illnesses that go unchecked as they can't gain access to medical services.