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December 06, 2004
2 Individuals entered in Register
2 Individuals entered in Register
(1) An entry must be made in the Register for every individual who—
(a) is entitled to be entered in it; and
(b) applies to be entered in it.
(2) The individuals entitled to be entered in the Register are—
(a) every individual who has attained the age of 16 and, without being excluded under subsection (3) from an entitlement to be registered, is residing at a place in the United Kingdom; and
(b) every individual of a prescribed description who has resided in the United Kingdom or who is proposing to enter the United Kingdom.
(3) Regulations made by the Secretary of State may provide that an individual residing in the United Kingdom is excluded from an entitlement to be registered if—
(a) he is residing in the United Kingdom in exercise of an entitlement to remain there that will end less than the prescribed period after it was acquired;
(b) he is an individual of a prescribed description who has not yet been resident in the United Kingdom for the prescribed period; or
(c) he is residing in the United Kingdom despite having no entitlement to remain there.
(4) An entry for an individual may be made in the Register (whether or not he has applied to be, or is entitled to be, entered in it) if information capable of being recorded in an entry for him is otherwise available to be recorded.
(5) The Secretary of State—
(a) may at any time modify the Register for the purpose of correcting information recorded in it that he is satisfied is inaccurate or incomplete; but
(b) is not, by virtue of any provision of this Act, to be under a duty to correct such information unless, in a case where he is so satisfied, he considers that it is appropriate to do so.
(6) An entry in the Register consisting of all the information recorded about an individual must be given a unique number, to be known as his National Identity Registration Number; and that number must comply with the prescribed requirements.
(7) The Secretary of State may by order modify the age for the time being specified in subsection (2)(a).
EXPLANATORY NOTES
Clause 2: Individuals entered in Register
20. This clause sets out who may be entered on to the Register and the Secretary of State's duty to make arrangements to enable these entries to be made.
21. Subsection (2) sets out the individuals who are entitled to be entered on the Register. These include individuals who have attained the age of 16 and are residing in the UK. They also include individuals of a description prescribed in regulations made by the Secretary of State who have resided in the UK, or who are proposing to enter the UK. This is to allow flexibility since whilst the ID card will be for all UK residents, it may be in the future that we would want through regulations to allow for example, British citizens resident overseas to register before returning to live in the UK.
22. Subsection (3) gives the Secretary of State power, by regulations, to exclude individuals from the entitlement to be entered on the Register if they do not meet prescribed requirements in relation to time of residence in the UK or if they are residing despite having no entitlement to remain (for example, individuals who are seeking asylum in the UK). The age of 16 mentioned previously may be varied by secondary legislation as provided for in subsection (7).
23. In general, an entry on the Register must be made if an application is made and the person is entitled to be entered (subsection (1)).
24. Subsection (4) provides that in some circumstances, a person who has not applied or is not entitled may be entered into the Register. For example, this power would allow the entry on to the Register of a failed asylum seeker who had not applied for an ID card but whose information including biometric data was available. This means that if he applies to stay in the UK again using a different identity, his previous status as a failed asylum seeker will have been recorded. This subsection does not constitute a power to obtain the biometric data of a person in the first place.
25. Subsection (5) allows the information held on the Register to be corrected.
26. Subsection (6) provides for every person registered on the National Register to be assigned a unique number, the National Identity Registration Number to be attached to the information recorded about an individual. The format of the National Identity Registration Number is to be specified in regulations. Other personal reference numbers may be recorded on the Register as provided for in Schedule 1, paragraph 4.
Amendments tabled by Friday 14th January 2005
Patrick Mercer
Mr Humfrey Malins
Mr Geoffrey Clifton Brown
Clause 2, page 2, line 35, leave out '16' and insert '18'.
Patrick Mercer
Mr Humfrey Malins
Mr Geoffrey Clifton Brown
Clause 2, page 2, line 44, leave out 'the prescribed period' and insert 'a period of 31 days'.
Patrick Mercer
Mr Humfrey Malins
Mr Geoffrey Clifton Brown
Clause 2, page 2, line 45, at end insert 'or'.
Patrick Mercer
Mr Humfrey Malins
Mr Geoffrey Clifton Brown
Mr Richard Allan
Mr Alistair Carmichael
Clause 2, page 3, line 2, leave out from 'period' to end of line 4.
Mr Richard Allan
Mr Alistair Carmichael
*Clause 2, page 3, line 2, leave out 'or'.
Mr Richard Allan
Mr Alistair Carmichael
*Clause 2, page 3, line 4, at end insert 'or
(d) he is a citizen of a European Union Member State with an approved identity document issued by that State.'.
Mr Richard Allan Mr Alistair Carmichael
Clause 2, page 3, line 5, leave out subsection (4).
Patrick Mercer
Mr Humfrey Malins
Mr Geoffrey Clifton Brown
Clause 2, page 3, line 7, at end insert—
'(4A) Details of any entry made in the Register must be provided to the person in respect of whom the entry is made.'.
Mr Richard Allan Mr Alistair Carmichael
*Clause 2, page 3, line 11, after 'incomplete', insert 'and
(aa) shall, in such circumstances, notify in writing the individual concerned of his intention to correct the information recorded and allow the individual to make representations accordingly before making such correction;'.
Mr Richard Allan Mr Alistair Carmichael
Clause 2, page 3, line 12, leave out from 'is' to 'under'.
Mr Richard Allan
Mr Alistair Carmichael
Clause 2, page 3, line 13, leave out from 'information' to end of line 14.
Mr Richard Allan
Mr Alistair Carmichael
*Clause 2, page 3, line 14, at end insert 'save where requested to do so by the individual concerned.'.
Patrick Mercer
Mr Humfrey Malins
Mr Geoffrey Clifton Brown
Clause 2, page 3, line 14, at end insert—
'(5A) The Secretary of State must notify the person in respect of whom an entry is modified in the exercise of powers under subsection (5) of the details of that modification.'.
Patrick Mercer Mr Humfrey Malins Mr Geoffrey Clifton Brown Mr Richard Allan Mr Alistair Carmichael
Clause 2, page 3, line 19, leave out subsection (7).
Patrick Mercer
Mr Humfrey Malins
Mr Geoffrey Clifton-Brown
Mr Richard Allan
Mr Alistair Carmichael
Clause 2, page 3, line 20, at end add—
'(8) The Secretary of State must not make an order containing (with or without other provision) any provision that he is authorised to make by this section unless a draft of the order has been laid before Parliament and approved by a resolution of each House.
(9) No draft order containing a provision that the Secretary of State is authorised to make by this section is to be laid before Parliament unless—
(a) the Secretary of State has prepared and published a report containing a proposal for the making of such provision;
(b) the report sets out the Secretary of State's reasons for making the proposal;
(c) the report has been laid before Parliament and each House has approved the proposal contained in the report, either with or without modifications; and
(d) the draft order gives effect to the proposal so far as approved by both Houses.'.
Posted by wtwu at December 6, 2004 02:53 PM
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» Evening Standard on ID Cards and spies - misses the risks of biometrics from Spy Blog
The evening newspaper in London, the Evening Standard managed to print a peculiar bit of spin about the Government's Identity Card scheme. This article totally misses what should be obvious - secret agents, spies, special services soldiers, undercover ... [Read More]
Tracked on February 5, 2005 11:57 AM
» Evening Standard on ID Cards and spies - misses the risks of biometrics from Spy Blog
The evening newspaper in London, the Evening Standard managed to print a peculiar bit of spin about the Government's Identity Card scheme. This article totally misses what should be obvious - secret agents, spies, special services soldiers, undercover ... [Read More]
Tracked on February 5, 2005 12:46 PM
Comments
Just a few comments on the obvious hilarities of the first few sections before focusing on one in particular;
(1) An entry must be made in the Register for every individual who—
(a) is entitled to be entered in it.
I like how it is called an "entitlement", suggesting a positive, and yet in this case, it is the kind of "entitlement" that you WILL make use of!
2) The individuals entitled to be entered in the Register are—
Anyone and everyone, with some interesting exceptions mentioned below.
The phrase "prescribed description" is used a couple of times in the next few subsections, and i think it fair to assume a different group being referenced each time, one who must be on the register and one who does not.
This can only mean that the Secretary of State can specify, arbitrarily or not, particular groups which must be scanned and logged to enter the UK, and those that do not.
Equality in treatment, it seems, is not high on the agenda at this stage, as this could well lead to a situation where, for instance, anyone from an Arabic nation must be entered on the database to enter to the UK, while those from, perhaps, the USA need not submit.
Paragraph 4 is where it really starts to be interesting however.
Now, please respond to my comments here and correct them if i am wrong in saying that this paragraph means that, even if a person does not apply for the ID card, or if he isn't entitled to have one anyway, that an entry may still be made, BUT, since you need not have applied, this entry could be done WITHOUT YOUR KNOWLEDGE OR CONSENT...
And since it could be done without your knowledge or consent, that would necessarily entail that the information required for the Database could be gleened from already existing sources.
There is also another way to view this paragraphs meaning - if an entry can be made with you having not applied, then this could mean that an entry can be made against your will, if for example you were stopped by police and it was found that you were not on the Regster, once it is compulsory to be so.
I must also express some concern over the term used in this paragraph which describes personal information as "otherwise available" - what exactly does that mean? That it's just hanging around the place ready to be turned into my digital doppleganger?
Of course, these possibilities may well be countered by paragraphs in other areas of the Bill, so forgive me for my error if this is the case.
The last paragraph, number 7, is also highly interesting, since it paves the way for a "birth 'till death" file, something like shich must surely be in mind in this otherwise unrequired addition; i for one cannot think of any reason as to why the age of 16 would ever need to be lowered under "normal" circumstances....
Posted by: jymjim at December 13, 2004 10:56 PM
2 (5) (b)
The Secretary of State should not be the judge of whether or not something is inaccurate, this should be a matter for an Independent Regulatory Body or for the courts..
The Secretary of State or this Independent Regulatatory Body should be bound by a have a positive duty to correct mistakes speedily and for free.
RECCOMENDATION:
Remove s 2 (5) (b)
State on the face of the Bill that those bodies operating or overseeing the scheme have a positive duty to correct mistakes, speedily and for free.
Posted by: wtwu at December 17, 2004 05:53 PM
Section 2 (7)
Parliament should decide, after a full debate, at the outset what the age requirement for the ID card and Register is.
Any change to this would be a major change to the project and will waste millions of pounds to implement.
This should not be changed by Order, but should require full Parliamentary scrutiny and debate of primary legislation.
Such a change of registration age requiremnt is worth at least as much full Parliamentary debate as the changes of the voting age or of marriage.
RECCOMENDATION:
Remove Section 2 (7) from the Bill
Posted by: wtwu at December 17, 2004 06:02 PM