House of Commons Public Bill Committee Proceedings

Session 2012 - 13
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Other Bills before Parliament

49

SUPPLEMENT TO THE VOTES AND PROCEEDINGS

Wednesday 27 June 2012

Committee of the whole House

Proceedings

Electoral Registration and Administration Bill

[Third DAY]

Mr Wayne David

Angela Smith

Not called  26

Clause  10,  page  7,  line  34,  at end insert ‘, with the exception of an order made

under section 6(2)’.

Clause Agreed to.

Clauses 11 and 12 Agreed to.

Wayne David

Angela Smith

Withdrawn  39

Schedule  4,  page  21,  line  23,  leave out sub-paragraph (2).

Mr Mark Williams

Negatived on division  35

Schedule  4,  page  21,  line  23,  leave out ‘, so far as is reasonably practicable,’.

Wayne David

Angela Smith

Not called  37

Schedule  4,  page  21,  line  26,  at end insert—

    ‘(4)
In subsection (2), after paragraph (e), insert—

“(f)
reporting to the police any suspicion he might have that an

offence had been committed relevant to the integrity of

registration and absent vote applications.”.’.

Wayne David

Angela Smith

Not called  40

Schedule  4,  page  21,  line  26,  at end insert—

Committee of the whole House Proceedings: 27 June 2012
50

Electoral Registration and Administration Bill, continued

‘(4)
At the end of subsection (3) insert—

“(4)
If the Electoral Commission judges that registration officers have not

taken all necessary steps as outlined in this section, the Electoral

Commission shall have the power to intervene.”.’.

Schedule Agreed to.

Clauses 13 and 14 Agreed to.

Wayne David

Angela Smith

Withdrawn  38

Clause  15,  page  9,  line  12,  at end insert—

‘(1A)
In section 13(4), at end add “provided that the registration officer shall not make

any such changes if an election specified in section 13B(4) is scheduled to take

place within 30 days of publication of the revised version of the register.”.’.

Clause Agreed to.

Clauses 16 to 21 Agreed to.

REMAINING NEW CLAUSES

Personation

John Hemming

Withdrawn  NC1

To move the following Clause:—

‘In section 60 of the Representation of the People Act 1983 (Personation) after

subsection (2) insert—

“(2A)
The Secretary of State shall introduce regulations by statutory instrument

to facilitate actions by electoral registration officers, their agents and

others, including candidates and their agents in elections, to—

(a)
prevent, and

(b)
detect personation.”.’.

Other voting offences

John Hemming

Not called  NC2

To move the following Clause:—

Committee of the whole House Proceedings: 27 June 2012
51

Electoral Registration and Administration Bill, continued

‘In section 61 of the Representation of the People Act 1983 (Other voting

offences) after subsection (6) insert—

“(6AA)
The Secretary of State shall introduce regulations by statutory

instruments to facilitate actions by electoral registration officers, their

agents and others, including candidates and their agents in elections, to—

(a)
prevent, and

(b)
detect the offences listed in subsections (1) to (6).”.’.

Representation of the People Act 1985 (Amendment)

Geoffrey Clifton-Brown

Tony Baldry

Mr Gary Streeter

Mr Robert Buckland

Mr Robert Walter

Mr Greg Knight

Withdrawn  NC3

To move the following Clause:—

‘(1)
The Representation of the People Act 1985 is amended as follows.

(2)
In section 1 (Extension of parliamentary franchise) omit subsections (3)(c) and

(4)(a).

(3)
In section 3 (Extension of franchise for European Parliamentary elections) omit

subsections (3)(c) and (4)(a).’.

Voting procedure

Mrs Eleanor Laing

Meg Munn

Mr David Blunkett

Bob Blackman

Mr Clive Betts

Meg Hillier

Wayne David
Angela Smith

Mr John Leech

Negatived on division  NC4

To move the following Clause:—

‘(1)
Schedule 1 to the Representation of the People Act 1983 (c. 2) (parliamentary

elections rules) is amended as follows.

(2)
In rule 37 (voting procedure) after paragraph (6) insert—

“(7)
A voter who is in the polling station or in a queue outside the polling

station for the purpose of voting at the time specified for the close of the

poll shall be entitled to apply for a ballot paper under paragraph 1 above

Committee of the whole House Proceedings: 27 June 2012
52

Electoral Registration and Administration Bill, continued

and a ballot paper shall be delivered and the voter entitled to vote in

accordance with this rule.”.’.

Explicit right of British citizens to register to vote and to participate in elections

Mr Richard Shepherd

Mr Philip Hollobone

James Wharton

Karl McCartney

Mr Stewart Jackson

Not called  NC5

To move the following Clause:—

‘(1)
The Representation of the People Act 1983 is amended as follows—

(2)
Insert “a British citizen,”

(a)
in section 1 (parliamentary electors), in subsection (1)(c), after “either”,

(b)
in section 2 (local government electors), in subsection (1)(C), after “is”,

(c)
in section 4 (entitlement to be registered as parliamentary or local

government elector), in subsection (1)(c), after “either”,

(d)
in section 4, subsection (3)(c), after “is”, and

(e)
in section 7B, subsection (3)(e), after “is”, in the first place it occurs.’.

Ring-fencing of funds provided to local authorities for use by electoral registration

officers

Mr Mark Williams

Not called  NC6


To move the following Clause:—

‘Funds provided to local authorities for use by electoral registration officers in

respect of their obligations under Part 1 of this Act shall be used only for the

fulfilment of those obligations and for their compliance with the duties set out in

section 9A of the 1983 Act, as amended by Schedule 4 to this Act, and not for any

other purpose.’.

Clause 22 Agreed to.

Committee of the whole House Proceedings: 27 June 2012
53

Electoral Registration and Administration Bill, continued

Wayne David

Angela Smith

Not called  41

Clause  23,  page  14,  line  6,  leave out from ‘means’ to end of line 11 and insert ‘the

Secretary of State’.

Clause Agreed to.

Clause 24 Agreed to.

Mr Wayne David

Angela Smith

Not called  30

Clause  25,  page  14,  line  17,  at end insert—

‘(1A)
Before making an order under subsection 1, the Secretary of State must seek the

views of the Electoral Commission as to whether the establishment of an electoral

register made up solely of electors who have registered individually would help

or hinder the achievement of the registration objectives.

(1B)
For these purposes the registration objectives are to secure, so far as is reasonably

practicable—

(a)
that persons who are entitled to be registered in a register are registered

in it,

(b)
that persons who are not entitled to be registered in a register are not

registered in it, and

(c)
that none of the information relating to a registered person that appears

in a register or other record kept by a registration officer is false.

(1C)
The Commission must submit its assessment, with a recommendation, in a report

to the Secretary of State, which must be laid before Parliament as soon as possible

by the Secretary of State.

(1D)
If—

(a)
the recommendation in the Electoral Commission’s report is that the

establishment of an electoral register made up solely of electors who have

registered individually would help the achievement of the registration

objectives, and

(b)
the recommendation is approved by a resolution of each House of

Parliament,


the Secretary of State may make an order bringing Parts 1 and 2 of this Act into

force.

(1E)
The Secretary of State may not make such an order if those conditions are not met.

(1F)
If—

(a)
the Electoral Commission’s report does not contain a recommendation to

proceed to establish an electoral register made up solely of electors who

have registered individually, or

(b)
the report does contain such a recommendation, but it is not approved by

a resolution of each House of Parliament,


within 12 months after the day on which the report is submitted by the Electoral

Commission (in the case mentioned in paragraph (a)) or disapproved in

Parliament (in the case mentioned in paragraph (b)), the Secretary of State must

require the Commission to submit, by a specified date, a further report under this

section containing the terms mentioned in subsection (1A).

Committee of the whole House Proceedings: 27 June 2012
54

Electoral Registration and Administration Bill, continued

(1G)
For the purposes of subsection (1F)—

(a)
a report is disapproved in Parliament when either House decided against

resolving to approve the report (or, if both Houses so decide on different

days, when the first of them so decides);

(b)
the date specified by the Secretary of State must be at least one year, but

no more than two years, after the day on which the requirement under that

subsection is imposed.’.

Mr Wayne David

Angela Smith

Negatived on division  31

Clause  25,  page  14,  line  17,  at end insert ‘with the exception of Schedule 5, Part 2,

which shall come into force by order only once—

(a)
the data matching pilots for pre-verification purposes established by the

Electoral Registration Data Schemes Order 2012 have been completed,

(b)
the Electoral Commission has reported on these schemes as under the

terms of that Order, and

(c)
the Electoral Commission believes that the completeness of the register

will not be negatively affected.’.

Wayne David

Angela Smith

Not called  43

Clause  25,  page  14,  line  17,  at end insert—

‘(1A)
Parts 1 and 2 of this Act may not come into force until a timetable for the

provisions of orders made by Statutory Instrument is published.’.

Wayne David

Angela Smith

Not called  42

Clause  25,  page  14,  line  20,  leave out from ‘purposes’ to end of the line.

Clause Agreed to.

Clause 26 Agreed to.

Bill read the third time on division and passed.



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