The Identity Documents Act 2010 (c. 40) is an Act of Parliament in the United Kingdom which reverses the introduction of identity cards, and requires the destruction of the information held on the National Identity Register. As a bill, it was presented to the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. ...

Home Secretary The secretary of state for the Home Department, otherwise known as the home secretary, is a senior minister of the Crown in the Government of the United Kingdom. The home secretary leads the Home Office, and is responsible for all national ...

Theresa May Theresa Mary May, Lady May (; née Brasier; born 1 October 1956) is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2016 to 2019. She previously served in David Cameron's cab ...

on 26 May 2010, making it the first government bill to be introduced to the 55th Parliament of the United Kingdom by the Cameron ministry.

Parliamentary passage

The government initially aimed to have the bill passed into law by August 2010, but the bill did not make sufficient progress to achieve this. The bill passed the House of Commons on 15 September 2010, and was unopposed by the

Opposition Opposition may refer to: Arts and media * ''Opposition'' (Altars EP), 2011 EP by Christian metalcore band Altars * The Opposition (band), a London post-punk band * '' The Opposition with Jordan Klepper'', a late-night television series on Com ...

. It was introduced to the

House of Lords The House of Lords, also known as the House of Peers, is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Membership is by appointment, heredity or official function. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminst ...

on 5 October 2010, and received its second reading on 18 October 2010, and successfully passed through a Committee of the Whole House without amendment. At report stage on 17 November 2010, however, peers accepted a Labour amendment to pay compensation to people who had already paid the charge to purchase an ID Card. The amendment remained in place until the bill returned to the House of Commons, where it was rejected by the Speaker as it imposed an additional charge on the public purse not authorised by the Commons, which holds financial supremacy over the House of Lords. The Lords accepted the Commons disagreement to their amendment, and the bill received Royal Assent on 21 December 2010.

Provisions

The Act repeals the

Identity Cards Act 2006 The Identity Cards Act 2006 (c. 15) was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that was repealed in 2011. It created national identity cards, a personal identification document and European Economic Area travel document, linked to a ...

and requires the destruction of the information held on the

National Identity Register The Identity Cards Act 2006 (c. 15) was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that was repealed in 2011. It created national identity cards, a personal identification document and European Economic Area travel document, linked to a ...

. It legislates to: * Cancel all existing ID cards within one month of Royal Assent * Remove the statutory requirement to issue ID Cards * Cancel the National Identity Register * Require the destruction of all data held on the Register within one month of Royal Assent * Close the Office of the

Identity Commissioner The Identity Commissioner (officially known as the National Identity Scheme Commissioner) was an independent regulator in the United Kingdom appointed under the Identity Cards Act 2006 based in London. Following the formation of the Conservat ...

* Re-enact some criminal offences (possession or use of false identity documents) and certain other measures contained in the Identity Cards Act 2006 Although the Act ends the validity of ID cards as

travel documents A travel document is an identity document issued by a government or international entity pursuant to international agreements to enable individuals to clear border control measures. Travel documents usually assure other governments that the beare ...

, no action will be taken to withdraw the National Identity Cards already issued.Cancellation of identity cards: FAQs
Identity and Passport Service

References

External links

Identity Documents Bill
– official page on UK Parliament website {{UK legislation United Kingdom Acts of Parliament 2010 Home Office (United Kingdom)

Parliamentary passage

Provisions

See also

References

Further reading

External links