Philip Johnston writes in the Daily Telegraph:

Unknown to many (including, it sometimes seems, to MPs), these statutory instruments (SIs) are now the principal way that law is made. Most Acts contain powers that Ministers can then trigger at some point in the future by way of secondary legislation. They are required to table them in the Commons for approval and this is obtained from a delegated legislation committee that meets about twice a week to consider the various measures.

MPs are shortly, for instance, to consider the Identity Cards Act 2006 (Application and Issue of ID Card and Notification of Changes) Regulations 2009. For those who swallowed the guff that the ID project had somehow gone away after the statement last week from Alan Johnson, the new Home Secretary, these new laws might come as a surprise.

What they do, according to an explanatory memorandum accompanying the SI, is to “outline how applications relating to the National Identity Register and the issue of ID cards should be made and the information that must accompany such application when they are being submitted… They introduce a requirement on an ID card holder to update subsequent changes to certain information held about them on the National Identity Register and report a lost, stolen, damaged, tampered with or destroyed ID card. They also establish the validity of an ID card.”

If the ID scheme is meant to be voluntary, which is the impression that Mr Johnson sought to give, how come the Government is proceeding with a new regulation that will make it illegal not to inform the “authorities” about changes of circumstances, such as a new address?

This entry was posted by andrew on Monday, July 6th, 2009 at 16:25 and is filed under Anti, General, UK News Articles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.