Lords accept U.K. national ID compromise: No compulsory biometric ID before 2010
A compromise is reached in the U.K. over a mandatory biometric national ID; for a while the stalemate between the House of Commons and the House of Lords threatened a constitutional crisis, but now all agree for 2010 as target date for the new ID
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The House of Lords has accepted a compromise deal over compulsory national ID cards, thus ending a stand-off with Tony Blair’s government which had threatened to trigger a constitutional showdown. The compromise: Anyone renewing or applying for a passport will be added to a national identity register but will not have to have a card until January 2010. The Lords voted 287 against 60 to accept the deal, finally approving legislation which the previous night they had rejected for a fifth time.
Earlier, MPs had thrown out a bid by the Lords to delay any element of compulsion, including having details on the register, until 2011. The Liberal Democrats complained that ID cards could now become compulsory before the next general election. Home affairs spokesman Nick Clegg said: “The British people must have a copper-bottomed guarantee that compulsion by stealth will not be imposed on them before they have had the opportunity to make their own judgment at the ballot box at the next General Election.” Shadow home secretary David Davis said the deal was “just about good enough …. Essentially no one who does not want to have an ID card before the next election will have to have one,” he said. “It’s a major climbdown by the Government.”
Lord Armstrong defended the compromise, saying most of the information being supplied would have to be disclosed as part of the passport application anyway.
