Lord Davies of Gower (Con)

My Lords, I must begin by saying that the order seems to be a bit of a relic of history. The Government have outlined how they believe it aims to modernise alcohol sales by allowing digital identification for the purposes of age verification at the point of sale. On several occasions, I have had an argument with the Minister about what we on this side view as the folly of digital ID cards. We disagree on the merits of their policy but, given that he has so vociferously defended the introduction of digital ID and given that the new Prime Minister has scrapped the policy, where does the Minister stand now? More importantly for this debate, what precisely is this order now standing on? The entire proposal behind it depends on functioning digital identification, yet the new Government have abandoned their own digital ID proposals, which, incidentally, I am delighted about. Parliament is being asked to approve secondary legislation built on an assumption of infrastructure that the Government themselves have just walked away from. This all begs the question: how will this now work? How will retailers use digital verification if there is no digital identification system being produced by the Government? It would be particularly useful if the Minister could answer that. I press the Minister on two further points. First, if a supermarket chain moves towards a QR code verification as its default, what protection exists for those, often older, customers who are unable or unwilling to use a smartphone? The impact assessment speaks confidently of time savings at self-checkouts but says little about those left behind by that convenience. Secondly, the Government have told the Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee that they expect uptake to reach 100% within seven years. Will physical identification still be accepted at that point or is this order, in fact, the first step towards its effective retirement? I should welcome clarity from the Minister on how it is meant to function, from a Government who have, by their own choice, abandoned the very digital identity framework on which this order depends.