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All-postal Ballots

19. Mr. Harry Barnes (North-East Derbyshire) (Lab): What assessment the Electoral Commission is making of the advice it gave electoral returning officers for recent all-postal ballots. [180450]

Mr. Peter Viggers (Gosport) (Con): The Commission keeps under constant review the advice and guidance that it offers electoral administrators. More specifically, it will review its guidance on post-election integrity checks for postal ballots as part of its evaluation of the all-postal pilot schemes.
 
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Mr. Barnes: Returning officers followed very closely one piece of advice about all-postal ballots that was offered to them, but I wonder whether some confusion might have been created by that advice. For example, the details of who was allowed to sign as a witness to the postal ballot confused various people, who did not really believe what was being said. What testing did the Electoral Commission conduct to assess whether people would understand the different forms of wording that could be used? The role of the Electoral Commission in this matter is as significant as any other factor in respect of the conduct of EU all-postal ballots.

Mr. Viggers: The hon. Gentleman makes an important point. He may have noticed that when the Government laid the orders for the regional referendums last Thursday, the requirement for a witness statement was not included. The orders are subject to affirmative resolution, but it would be open to Members to make their contributions during the debate on the affirmative resolution, if that should come before the House.

Mr. David Heath (Somerton and Frome) (LD): Reference has been made to the laying of the orders for the regional government referendums. Can it really be the case that the Chairman of the Electoral Commission has written to the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister about public confidence and appropriate safeguards, expressing the wish that the Government wait, yet the Deputy Prime Minister has chosen once again completely to ignore the Electoral Commission's advice? In order to further the debate, will the hon. Gentleman put it to the Electoral Commission that it would be in everyone's interest if that exchange of correspondence were made public so that the House could determine the value of the points expressed before coming to a view on the orders that have been laid on the conduct of the referendum?

Mr. Viggers: Yes. The commission believes that there would be benefit in Parliament having available to it the Electoral Commission's evaluation reports on the June pilot before taking a decision on whether to approve the orders specifying the form of the referendum. It would therefore prefer the Government to wait until the results of the statutory evaluation exercise are available in mid-September.

Mr. Gordon Prentice (Pendle) (Lab): I have in my hands the order that has been mentioned and which was laid last Thursday. It tells us that the Government are prepared to abandon all-postal voting in the regional assembly referendums in October if the Electoral Commission produces convincing evidence that it would be unsafe to proceed. Has the hon. Gentleman had any discussions with any member of the Government about what might constitute convincing evidence?

Mr. Viggers: As the House knows, it is not within the remit of the Speaker's Committee to have such discussions. I have no doubt that the Electoral Commission is in discussion with Government representatives.
 
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Mr. Andrew Mackay (Bracknell) (Con): My hon. Friend will be aware that the hon. Member for Birmingham, Sparkbrook and Small Heath (Mr. Godsiff) told the House during a debate last week that postal vote applications in the Washwood Heath ward in the Birmingham, Hodge Hill constituency went up from 693 to a staggering 5,583. He believed that electoral fraud had taken place. In the circumstances, with two sensitive by-elections taking place on 15 July in Birmingham, Hodge Hill and Leicester, South, will my hon. Friend ask the chairman of the Electoral Commission to send observers to those constituencies to ensure that wide-scale fraud does not take place?

Mr. Viggers: My right hon. Friend has rightly drawn attention to the remarkable speech by the hon. Member for Birmingham, Sparkbrook and Small Heath (Mr. Godsiff) on 22 June. He quoted The Birmingham Post as saying:

"Fights in the streets, postmen offered bribes for sacks of ballot forms, a post box torched, car chases, threats, bullying and intimidation and the unforgettable image of a . . . councillor 'sorting out' ballot papers in the shadows of a back street car park at midnight."—[Official Report, 22 June 2004; Vol. 422, c. 1233.]

Those events did not take place in one of the four areas delegated for all-postal balloting, but the Electoral Commission will, of course, take full account of them in its general review of voting practices, which is expected later this year—although not by 13 September.

Council Elections

22. Chris Bryant (Rhondda) (Lab): What evaluation the Commission has made of the effects of holding council elections in June rather than May. [180454]

Mr. Peter Viggers (Gosport) (Con): The commission has no statutory duty to report on local authority elections and has therefore made no such evaluation. However, the commission will consider the impact of combining the local elections with the European parliamentary elections in its statutory report on the latter, which it plans to publish by the end of the year.

Chris Bryant: I hope that when the commission does so it will note that the turnout in the local council elections was significantly up, partly by virtue of their being held on the same day as the European elections and also—I suspect—by virtue of their being held in June. After all, canvassing in April, with its regular showers, is much more difficult and it is easier for people to get out to vote during the lighter days. Will the hon. Gentleman urge people to move towards a single date in June for all our elections, so that everybody can be clear where they stand?

Mr. Viggers: The commission has not, to date, considered the timing of local elections and has no current plans to review the matter. However, the commission has previously expressed concern about dates of fixed elections being moved and the potential impact on voter comprehension of combining elections. The commission has also expressed concern about the principle of combining referendums with party-based elections.
 
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Mr. Douglas Hogg (Sleaford and North Hykeham) (Con): Does my hon. Friend agree that although it is true that turnout increased where there were all-postal ballots, that may have more to do with the fact that the local authority and European elections were combined than with the fact that there was an all-postal ballot?

Mr. Viggers: Indeed. Concern has been expressed about postal ballots; we have come quite a long way from the 1870 Elections Bill, which sought to introduce secret voting in parliamentary elections and was intended to rid British politics of some of the abuses that had disfigured its elections. My right hon. and learned Friend makes a fair point, but it is also true that turnout increased significantly as a result of the introduction of postal ballots; for instance, in the east midlands, it increased from 22.6 per cent. to 44.6 per cent.

Kevin Brennan (Cardiff, West) (Lab): In the hon. Gentleman's discussions with the Electoral Commission will he also pass on the observation that in Wales, where unitary authority elections in every council area and European elections were held on the same day, turnout in the European elections rose by about 12 per cent. As a result, turnout for the European elections was higher in Wales than in some of the compulsory postal voting areas, so will he recommend to the commission that elections should be held on the same day in June?

Mr. Viggers: I shall indeed pass on the hon. Gentleman's comments to the Electoral Commission. That is exactly the kind of thing it will consider in its report on 13 September.

CHURCH COMMISSIONERS

The hon. Member for Middlesbrough, representing the Church Commissioners, was asked—

Parish Priests

23. Miss Anne McIntosh (Vale of York) (Con): What steps are being taken to recruit parish priests, particularly in rural areas, to replace those who are due to retire in the coming years. [180455]

Second Church Estates Commissioner (Sir Stuart Bell): The Church of England actively promotes vocations to the priesthood, irrespective of geographical area, through diocesan initiatives and by keeping the first Sunday in May as vocations day.

Miss McIntosh: I am not sure of the implications of that answer for my question. In last month's Question Time, the hon. Gentleman gave me a very helpful response about the large number of stalwart parish priests, although he alarmed me by saying that a significant number of them were coming up to retirement. What specific measures does the Church have in mind to recruit and train their replacements? How long will it take, and will the stream of recruits be sufficient to replace those priests who are expected to retire?
 
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Sir Stuart Bell: I am grateful to the hon. Lady. Some predominantly rural dioceses have responded to shortages of stipendiary clergy by developing local ministry teams that include clergy and lay ministers and cover a number of parishes, although that development is not exclusive to rural areas. The hon. Lady has a strong interest in rural issues, so she will know that the Church continues to be concerned about the lack of priests in rural areas and is doing all that it can to rectify that.

ELECTORAL COMMISSION COMMITTEE

      The hon. Member for Gosport, representing the Speaker's Committee on the Electoral Commission, was asked—

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