Identity Documents Act 2010

Parliamentary passage

The government initially aimed to have the bill passed into law by August 2010, but the bill did not make sufficient progress to achieve this.

The bill passed the House of Commons on 15 September 2010, and was unopposed by the Opposition. It was introduced to the House of Lords on 5 October 2010, and received its second reading on 18 October 2010, and successfully passed through a Committee of the Whole House without amendment.

At report stage on 17 November 2010, however, peers accepted a Labour amendment to pay compensation to people who had already paid the charge to purchase an ID Card.

The amendment remained in place until the bill returned to the House of Commons, where it was rejected by the Speaker as it imposed an additional charge on the public purse not authorised by the Commons, which holds financial supremacy over the House of Lords. The Lords accepted the Commons disagreement to their amendment, and the bill received Royal Assent on 21 December 2010.

Provisions

The Act repealed the Identity Cards Act 2006 and required the destruction of the information held on the National Identity Register. It legislated to:

• Cancel all existing ID cards within one month of Royal Assent
• Remove the statutory requirement to issue ID Cards
• Cancel the National Identity Register
• Require the destruction of all data held on the Register within two months of Royal Assent
• Close the Office of the Identity Commissioner
• Re-enact some criminal offences (possession or use of false identity documents) and certain other measures contained in the Identity Cards Act 2006

Although the Act ended the validity of ID cards as travel documents, no action was taken to withdraw the National Identity Cards already issued.

References

References

1. (27 May 2010). "Identity cards scheme will be axed 'within 100 days'". [[BBC News Online]].
2. (17 November 2010). "Government suffers Lords defeat over ID card refunds". [[BBC News Online]].
3. [https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201011/cmbills/001/2011001.pdf Identity Documents Bill 2010 ''as introduced'']
4. [http://www.number10.gov.uk/queens-speech/2010/05/queens-speech-identity-documents-bill-50641 Queen's Speech – Identity Documents Bill] {{webarchive. link. (2010-05-28 , Number10.gov.uk, published May 25, 2010, accessed May 27, 2010)
5. (2010-09-15). "ID card compensation ruled out as MPs approve abolition". BBC News.
6. (2010-05-25). "Queen's Speech 2010: Bill by bill". BBC News.
7. [http://www.ips.gov.uk/cps/rde/xchg/ips_live/hs.xsl/1690.htm Cancellation of identity cards: FAQs] {{Webarchive. link. (2010-06-07 Identity and Passport Service)