Identity Cards

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what (a) Government departments, (b) non-governmental public bodies and (c) other organisations (i) have and (ii) are planned to have access to information held on the national identity database. (318708)

No organisation will have direct access to information recorded on the National Identity Register, with or without the consent of the individual. The Identity Cards Act 2006, and secondary legislation made there under, sets out who may be provided with information from an individual's entry on the register and under what circumstances.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will make it his policy not to introduce compulsory identity cards. (318715)

Government policy is that Identity Cards are voluntary. The Prime Minister has made it clear that there will be no legislation to make Identity Cards compulsory for British citizens in the next Parliament. Identity cards are all about personal choice and the introduction of identity cards, which has now started for British citizens, is on a voluntary basis.