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Transexuals will be allowed to have two ID cards Ian Morgan / Press Association | January 31 2006 Comment: Phew, I was worried that the whole scheme might be questionable, but now I'm reassured. Transexuals who have yet to have a sex-change operation will be entitled to have two ID cards. One card would be in their gender at birth and the other in their legally-acquired "gender of designation", Home Office minister Baroness Scotland of Asthal disclosed last night. It was another disappointing night for the Government who suffered a fresh defeat on its controversial plans to bring in ID cards. Voting in the Lords was 155 to 138, a majority of 17, to give nominal additional independence to the scheme's proposed watchdog. The amendment, put forward at the Identity Cards Bill's report stage by Liberal Democrat frontbencher Lord Phillips of Sudbury, would ensure the National Identity Scheme Commissioner was a Crown appointment. The Bill had proposed that the commissioner should be appointed by the Home Secretary but peers insisted that the appointment should be by "the Crown, on the recommendation of the Secretary of State". Peers have already amended the Bill to delay its implementation for a full cost-benefit analysis and have demanded a separate Act of Parliament before the voluntary ID scheme can be made compulsory. The Government had earlier avoided another defeat when peers voted 155 to 155 on a backbench Tory move to clarify the Home Secretary's role in authorising disclosure of ID information. Under Lords' rules an amendment cannot be carried unless it has a majority. The Government suffered a second defeat when peers voted, 145 to 139, majority six, that the commissioner should report to Parliament rather than to the Home Secretary. Tory Lord Crickhowell, the former Welsh Secretary Nicholas Edwards, said: "I thought it was bizarre to believe that the primary job of the commissioner is to advise the Secretary of State and give him reassurance that the ID cards scheme is operating correctly." Lord Crickhowell's amendments would allow the commissioner to consult the Home Secretary on whether parts of his report should be omitted on grounds of national security or for the prevention or detection of crime. Baroness Scotland of Asthal argued that the reports should be treated in the same way as those of police inspectorate, the Surveillance Commissioner and the Intelligence Services Commissioner. They were not in the same category as those of the (Freedom of) Information Commissioner or the Immigration Services Commissioner, which are laid before Parliament. It should be for the Home Secretary, not the commissioner, to decide what should be omitted, she insisted. This was because the Home Secretary had a "thorough overview" of issues affecting crime and national security. Security briefings would "significantly change" the nature of the commissioner's role, she warned. She stressed, too, that the edited version of the report would be published by the Home Secretary. The Bill's third reading is scheduled for next Monday. It will then return to the Commons, where ministers are expected to ask MPs to overturn the Government's Lords defeats. |
