The House of Lords yesterday inflicted three defeats on the government over its proposal for national ID cards.

The Lords voted by 237 votes to 156 for a resolution demanding that the National Audit Office justify its estimate of the costs of such a scheme. A parallel study by the London School of Economics had suggested that the cost of the cards would be three times the government's estimate.

"Amendment number one returns to the issue of the costs of the ID cards scheme," said the Conservative Baroness Noakes, who introduced the amendment.

"Our committee stage was unusual in that we failed to get any useful information despite spending several hours on the matter. In fact, our only achievement was to establish with more precision what the government would not tell us about costs." 

In the second vote the government was defeated on an amendment which required a secure method of storing the personal data recorded on the card.

"There is, as this House knows, widespread public concern over the facts to be gathered under the Bill," said Baroness Seccombe, shadow minister for home affairs and legal affairs.

"I am in full agreement with that concern, which is not confined to the accuracy of the information, vital though that is. The facts must, indeed, be accurate and up to date, but they also need to be secure from theft and misuse.

"We are all aware of the growing problem of identity theft and fraud and the importance of keeping personal information safe and private."