13 Uniform format for residence permits
for third country nationals
| (27408)
7298/06
COM(06) 110
| Modified draft Council Regulation amending Regulation (EC) 1030/2002 laying down a uniform format for residence permits for third-country nationals
|
| Legal base | Article 63(3)(a) EC; consultation; unanimity
|
| Document originated | 10 March 2006
|
| Deposited in Parliament | 7 April 2006
|
| Department | Home Office |
| Basis of consideration | EM of 24 April 2006
|
| Previous Committee Report | None; but see HC 42-xi (2003-04), para 22 (25 February 2004)
|
| To be discussed in Council | No date set
|
| Committee's assessment | Politically important
|
| Committee's decision | Not cleared; further information requested
|
Legal background
13.1 Article 63(3)(a) of the EC Treaty authorises the Council
to adopt measures on the procedures for the issue by Member States
of residence permits.
Previous scrutiny
13.2 In 2002, the Government opted to be bound by the Council
Regulation which lays down a uniform format for residence permits
for third-country nationals.[31]
13.3 In 2003, the Commission presented the draft
of an amending Regulation to integrate biometric identifiers into
the residence permits. The Government told the previous Committee
that it strongly supported the inclusion of biometrics and that
it had decided to opt into the amending Regulation. Our predecessors
cleared the proposal from scrutiny.[32]
13.4 The draft Regulation provided for biometric
identifiers to be incorporated into both residence permits and
residence stickers. After the previous Committee cleared the document,
an expert committee advised the Commission that, at present, it
is not technically feasible to integrate biometric identifiers
in stickers. In the light of this advice, the Council invited
the Commission to present a modified draft of the Regulation.
The modified draft
13.5 The modified draft of the Regulation provides
for:
- a two-year transitional period
for the phasing-out of residence stickers;
- residence permits to be issued
only as a stand-alone document in a uniform format;
- the production of technical specifications for
the facial image and fingerprints to be incorporated in the residence
permit;
- the prohibition of the incorporation of information
in the machine-readable part of the permit unless its inclusion
is authorised by the Regulation or the national legislation of
the issuing Member State;
- the use of the biometric identifiers in the residence
permit only to verify the authenticity of the document or the
identity of the holder;
- Member States to have discretion to incorporate
in the residence permit "a separate contact chip for national
use" ; and
- the identity photograph to be incorporated in
residence permits by 30 August 2006.
13.6 The Commission says that the proposal for Member
States to have discretion to include a separate box in the permit
in which a contact chip could be inserted is intended to meet
the wish of Estonia to use its resident permits to enable its
own nationals and legally resident third-country nationals to
have equal access to eservices.
The Government's view
13.7 The Minister of State for Immigration, Citizenship
and Nationality at the Home Office (Mr Tony McNulty) tells us
that the Government supports the use of biometric data in travel
documents. He says that the cost to the UK of implementing the
Regulation will not be clear until more details of the technical
specification are available. The Government is considering whether
to opt into the modified draft of the Regulation and will tell
us what decision it reaches.
Conclusion
13.8 The Government wished to opt into the previous
draft of this Regulation. The Minister does not explain why it
has not yet decided whether to opt into the modified version.
We ask him to tell us why.
13.9 The Government told the previous Committee
that the start-up cost of including biometric identifiers in residence
permits issued by the UK was estimated to be about £24 million,
with annual running costs of about £15 million. We ask the
Minister if it is estimated that the cost of implementing the
modified Regulation would be similar and why he made no comment
on the likely cost when a previous Minister was able to provide
us with an estimate in 2004.
13.10 We note that the modified draft proposes
that Member States should have discretion to incorporate a "contact
chip" in residence permits. The draft contains no limitation
on what the contact chip might contain or on the use to which
the information might be put. We ask the Minister to comment on
whether it is acceptable that there are no such limits and on
whether (and for what purposes) the Government would be disposed
to exercise the discretion if it were to opt into the Regulation.
13.11 We shall keep the document under scrutiny
pending the Minister's replies to our questions and the Government's
decision whether to opt into it.
31 Council Regulation (EC) No. 1030/2002: OJ No. L
157, 15.6.2002, p.1. Back
32
See headnote. Back
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