Mr. Tim Duggan:

I agree with Deputy Coppinger that there has been quite a degree of sensitivity around PPS numbers in recent times in particular. Notwithstanding that, it is worth remembering that the PPS number has been established as the unique personal identifier for engaging in transactions with the public service and, consequently, that is the context in which it should be considered. After all, it is the outcome of an Act of Parliament for that very specific purpose.

In addition, serious consideration should be given to the fact that beyond the PPS number there is the public service identity dataset, which has very valuable information in it that could be of pertinence to an electoral register and the maintenance of it, such as people's nationalities, dates of birth and other information of that nature. The whole idea of people going onto the register automatically on reaching 18 years of age could be fashioned out of that dataset and its leveraging.

A number of contributors mentioned changes of address, people emigrating and such issues that arise for the register. In reality, none of the identity infrastructure that is currently in place will adequately deal with that. What happens in other countries is they maintain population registers, and if we are serious about dealing with continual changing of address and people leaving the country then the only way to deal with that is through a legislative population register, as exists in central European countries in particular.