Lord Selsdon: I refer the Minister to the response to a Question for a Written Answer on 16 March 2005, at col. 316W of Hansard for the House of Commons. Mr Weir asked, on biometric data, whether the Government would,

"list the identifiers that will be held digitally on the chip in the ePassport".

The response was:

"In compliance with ICAO requirements, the chip will hold a facial image of the passport holder. This facial image will be derived from the applicant's photo submitted at time of application and will be stored in accordance with ICAO and ISO standards.

Additional information will include that which is currently shown on the personal details page of the passport, namely name, nationality, date of birth, sex, place of birth, date of issue/expiry and passport number".

I raise that because I believe that there will be problems with identity.

The Minister was kind and charming enough to draw attention to the fact that her lovely brown eyes would be easily recognised. I should advise her that a smart Christmas gift at the moment is soft contact lenses in different colours, enabling you to change your eyes to green, blue, or to almost every colour except for red. I have a feeling that the technology may not be up with the ambition, and I return once again to the importance of the relationship between the passport and the identity card.

3.30 pm

Lord Crickhowell: The Minister will probably say that the Government are aiming to work on a combination of different identifications, but that still raises the issue as to what happens if someone fails to qualify under any one of them and is therefore rejected. I have in front of me the report of the ID technology advisory group, which reported to
 
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EURIM and gave on the whole an encouraging report on what the Government are attempting. But on this subject, the group pointed out:

"Facial recognition is rated as 'Medium-Low' stability. Depending on the type of facial recognition employed, a system may be better able to cope with the ongoing facial changes we experience over a lifetime.

The human face is subject to change due to a whole variety of reasons, such as ageing, skin tone, religious attire, illness, wearing glasses, facial hair and expression, all of which in terms of access control could cause 'nuisance' problems and could require either a database with several images of the same subject and/or a regularly updated file image.

Lighting levels, weather conditions, angle of image and degree of subject co-operation will also have an effect on the performance of the biometric system".

That is the view of what is probably one of the most highly qualified groups of technologists that has given advice. My concern is not so much that we won't have a system that, if taken together, will satisfactorily identify people; my concern is that if one item of your image sends up a negative on the screen, you will be in the most awful trouble. So in view of that technical assessment of the facial identification, how do the Government propose to overcome the problem?

Lord Phillips of Sudbury: If the Minister is inclined to be sympathetic towards this group of amendments, will she also be inclined to be sympathetic towards a curtailment of the provisions of Clause 1, and in particular subsection (7)? Schedule 1 falls within the ambit of Clause 1, but that clause allows a far wider collection of physical characteristics than merely face or shoulders. It allows the capture of any,

"physical characteristics . . . that are capable of being used for"

identification. Would the Minister refer to that, because these amendments do not go half way towards the concerns expressed by the movers?

Baroness Scotland of Asthal: The noble Lord referred to Clause 1(7). Does he mean Clause 1(6)(e)?

Lord Phillips of Sudbury: No, I mean Clause 1(7)(e), which refers to physical characteristics.

Baroness Scotland of Asthal: I regret to tell the Committee that I have an old copy of the Bill—I do not know how it got in there.

Lord Phillips of Sudbury: But we have had this copy for the past two months.

Baroness Scotland of Asthal: That is why I cannot understand how it got in there. It was not there on Friday.

I will deal with some of the issues on biometrics first and then I will go back. I hope that I will be able to give the noble Baroness comfort on the difficulty about which she concerns herself.

The use of biometrics must be seen in the context of a wide range of measures that will be taken to secure the integrity of the enrolment process on the national identity register. Additionally, in taking biometrics
 
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application data, data will be verified through checks on public and private databases. Supporting documentation will be scrutinised and the personal interviews will be conducted to establish an individual's identity. That is the background in which the biometrics will be taken. In addition to all these steps, we have the additional protection of verifying a person's biometrics against previously enrolled identities. The use of multiple identifiers—that is, fingerprints, iris and photos—will provide extra protection against fraud by enhancing the ability to check against previously enrolled identities and also ensuring that biometrics are captured for anyone who would have difficulties with a single biometric. So the noble Lord, Lord Crickhowell, rightly foreshadowed the response that I am making on that point.

Therefore, when we look at the data that we now have, there are some indicators that should give us comfort. I think that the noble Baroness, Lady Seccombe, said that there were difficulties in one in six instances. I think I can comfort her by saying that that is not in fact correct—it is not correct that one in six could not participate in the ID card scheme due to an inability to record biometrics. The UK Passport Service trial showed that at least 99.954 per cent of the participants could enrol at least one biometric. So there was not a difficulty there.

As for the issue which the noble Lord, Lord Selsdon, raised on coloured contact lenses, such lenses would be noticeable to a trained supervisor at biometric recording and the individual would be requested to remove them. Normal contact lenses will not cause problems for enrolment; but the clever contact lenses that change colour do, and therefore they can be detectable. In the letter of 9 December, which I regret not everyone has a copy of, I dealt with many of these issues in the annexe. The Committee will find that, in Annexe B, I tried to answer a range of questions on biometrics because I knew that a number of noble Lords had raised them. It will be up to an individual—to answer the second question of the noble Baroness, Lady Seccombe—to decide whether the photograph on their ID card needs to be updated because their appearance has changed. Just as now, many people quite like to hang on to the old photograph for the 10 years for reasons that seem to me absolutely reasonable. Others may like to change them a little earlier.

Clause 1(7)(e) does not cover any physical characteristics, only those that are capable of being used for identifying the person. So, for example, illnesses could not be recorded under this paragraph. That is one of the issues addressed in the letter to which I referred. Again, I am sorry if not all noble Lords have had an opportunity to read it.

Perhaps we can now come back to the question raised by the noble Baroness about how the clause is phrased, and indeed the concern raised by the noble Earl, Lord Northesk, that the back of the head could be taken as opposed to the face. As these photographs will be taken by staff of the agency, I am not convinced
 
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that the problem will arise in practice: I would hope that those who undertake these tests would actually be able to recognise the back of the head as opposed to the front of the head. There is also the question of the reference—whether, if you have the face alone, someone will say that the hair is or is not included.

I am more than prepared to look at the wording with a view to aligning the phrase used with that which appears in the UK Passport Service standard for passport photographs, which refers to head, face and shoulders. I hope to return by Report with something to allay the anxieties that have been expressed, but I reassure the Committee that I do not think in practice there will be much difficulty in identifying the facial features to appear on the photograph.