Digital ID

Lord Young of Cookham Excerpts

Tuesday 14th October 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Vallance of Balham (Lab)]

We are, of course, fully committed to everything in the Good Friday agreement. My colleague, the Minister for Digital Government and Data, was in Northern Ireland just last week. He had meetings with the Deputy Speaker, Northern Ireland’s Community Minister and the Finance Minister. Engagement with the Irish Government is planned as well. This will be done in close collaboration, recognising exactly the point about the desire of people either to have or not to have something linked to this. Of course, Ireland is introducing its own digital ID scheme as part of the EU. We intend to stay very close on this and make sure we do this in partnership.

[Lord Young of Cookham (Con)]

My Lords, I have listened with interest to the exchange so far. I have an open mind on this. My noble friend Lord Camrose raised some important questions about cost, security and utility. It struck me that it would be premature, before those questions had been fully explored, to come to a conclusion that this is something that should be opposed in principle. I note that in a recent opinion poll some 57% of the public were in favour of ID. The highest level of support actually came from people who voted Conservative.

My question to the Minister is about the consultation process mentioned in the Statement, which is due to begin at the end of the year. Can he tell the House when that consultation will end? What form will it take? Will it be an attempt to have a wide debate throughout the country, with documents being produced for public consumption? What exactly is the shape of the consultation? Presumably the Government will be in favour of the proposal, but what might be available to those who take a different view from the Government on it and may want some resources to campaign against it?

[Lord Vallance of Balham (Lab)]

I thank the noble Lord for those observations. The consultation needs to be inclusive, involve various groups, and give everybody a chance to input into this from societal and technical aspects. The aim is to have a very widespread consultation to make sure we get the right input from all parts of society. We have talked about those who may feel excluded already. The intention is to have a consultation that really helps shape this. It is not a consultation just to say we have done one; it is one that will help shape this from every angle. We look forward to input from across the House and beyond.