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Sir Patrick Cormack (South Staffordshire) (Con): I congratulate the Secretary of State on his exemplary attitude and approach. Will he build on that by keeping the House informed of the situation? If there is significant further information, will he make a written statement on Thursday; and when we come back in October, can we have at least a detailed written statement outlining precisely what has been done, especially with regard to those territories for which we have a political responsibility?

Hilary Benn: I am happy to do both those things, and I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for his suggestion.

Mr. David Heath (Somerton and Frome) (LD): In recent days, I have been in contact with my constituent, Mr. Gerry Copsey, who runs a company called Just Grenada and has been desperately working with other tour operators and airlines to evacuate people from Grenada. He tells me that there are two overriding problems there: the breakdown of law and order and lack of policing; and the lack of prefabricated housing. Is the Secretary of State satisfied that the welcome
 
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support from troops from Barbados and Trinidad is sufficient to restore governmental systems and policing on the island; and is there scope for providing a greater supply of prefabricated housing so that people can get back into solid houses, rather than tents, at the earliest opportunity?

Hilary Benn: I am grateful for the information that the hon. Gentleman's constituent has provided. I do not know whether the steps taken with the assistance of those countries have dealt with the problem that was identified, but I can tell him that the response from neighbouring countries and islands is being led by Trinidad and Tobago. As I said, there is a curfew in Grenada. The authorities will no doubt consider what further steps are needed to ensure the peace and stability that are the building blocks of any progress.

I am sure that housing is one of the issues that will be considered in further assessments of what can be done in the medium term, but the hon. Gentleman will understand that the priority has been to ensure that people who had the roofs blown off their houses have sheeting or tarpaulin to put over them so that they at least get shelter from the rain; that is what we are working towards.

Mr. Humfrey Malins (Woking) (Con): I, too, thank the Secretary of State for his full and helpful statement. Will he say a little more about climate change, particularly as it may affect this country? In other words—I hope this is not a naive question—could this awful hurricane perhaps be an indication that we in this country should brace ourselves against possible changes in climate and weather patterns that may affect us as well as other parts of the world?

Hilary Benn: I understand why the hon. Gentleman raises that point, but I am not in a position to forecast the potential impact of climate change on this country. That is beyond my responsibilities and, indeed, my knowledge of meteorology.

Mr. John Bercow (Buckingham) (Con): Surely not.

Hilary Benn: Definitely so. Many people say that we are experiencing increasingly frequent severe weather
 
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patterns, and that is understandably generating a debate about whether it is a consequence of climate change. Whether or not that is so, we can see the impact that increasing CO2 emissions are having. The weight of scientific opinion is clear, and we need to respond. It will be incumbent on all countries, including the UK, to be in a position to prepare themselves in case such eventualities affect them.

Sir Sydney Chapman (Chipping Barnet) (Con): The Secretary of State has graphically described the death, damage and destruction that was wreaked by a hurricane, which could perhaps be most aptly called Ivan the Terrible. As he said, it is the worst one for some years. Given that nearly every hon. Member has mentioned global warming and climate change in the context of such natural disasters, will he assure the House that scientific research is being conducted nationally, internationally or both? If a link can be shown, perhaps that will be the greatest fillip for hon. Members of all parties who want the Kyoto protocol to be adhered to and mankind to take urgent and immediate action. We are all responsible for wrecking, probably irreversibly, mother earth's fragile ecosystem.

Hilary Benn: The hon. Gentleman makes a powerful point, not least about the threat of the process of change to us all, wherever we live in the world. As he knows, a great deal of scientific research is being undertaken. The Government's chief scientific adviser, Sir David King, has spoken about that forcefully. However, Governments and politicians are also required to act. Frankly, that is the biggest challenge that the world faces.

Mr. Henry Bellingham (North-West Norfolk) (Con): As the Secretary of State knows, Britain has a proud tradition of helping the residents of all the Caribbean islands when natural disasters occur. As my hon. Friend the Member for Banbury (Tony Baldry) pointed out, we have an extra special obligation to British overseas territories. The Secretary of State mentioned that the Caymans constitute a wealthy overseas territory, but its residents are nevertheless proud British subjects. Surely that should never be forgotten.

Hilary Benn: I agree entirely. That is why we are trying to fulfil our particular responsibility to the Cayman Islands in the ways I have described, and why we shall continue to do that.
 
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Representation of the People (Ballot Papers)

1.12 pm

Ms Meg Munn (Sheffield, Heeley) (Lab/Co-op): I beg to move,

That leave be given to bring in a Bill to make provision about the order of names on ballot papers used in elections where more than one candidate is to be elected; and for connected purposes.

In all elections in the United Kingdom, the names of candidates are currently listed on the ballot paper in alphabetical order using the surname. When the election concerns parties, such as in the European elections, they are also listed alphabetically. Consequently, someone with the surname "Blair" would find themselves listed above someone with the surname "Howard", or, indeed, Kennedy. The Ant Liberation party, should such a party exist, would appear above the Bring-Back-Doctor-Who party or the Flat Earth party.

That does not seem surprising, as it is the case in many areas of life. At school, our registers were listed alphabetically and when hon. Members vote in this place, our names are recorded in Hansard alphabetically by surname. So why should that easily administered and well understood part of the electoral process change?

The ballot paper is fundamental to our democracy. No candidate or party should receive advantage from the ballot paper. If the political process is not fair and equitable to all candidates, it strikes at the heart at our system of democracy. In June 2003, the Electoral Commission produced a report entitled "Ballot Paper Design", which covered a range of issues regarding ballot papers, including alphabetical listing of candidates. After extensive consultation, it considered whether alphabetical discrimination exists: whether candidates with surnames towards the end of the alphabet are less likely to be elected because their names appear lower down the ballot paper, and whether there was evidence that electors were more inclined to vote for those nearer the top of the ballot paper for no reason other than reading those names first.

In the consultation process, the Electoral Commission received little evidence to suggest that, in single-vacancy elections, there is any bias towards those higher up the ballot paper. An analysis of the 2001 election showed an almost equal split between the positions on the ballot paper in which the winning candidates were placed.

My concern arises not from single-vacancy elections but from those where more than one candidate are elected. This year, for example, several local authority councils, such as my authority of Sheffield, were elected on new ward boundaries. That necessitated the election of all members of the council, whereas normally one third of the council is elected. In talking to hon. Members, I found that many provided anecdotal evidence of discrimination which they believed affected candidates placed lower down the ballot paper. Although in many circumstances that is not sufficient to affect the outcome of the election, in some it might.

The Electoral Commission shares that concern and cites academic research analysing the London borough elections in 1994 and the English shire district elections in 1995. The research showed that a smaller proportion of ballots was cast for candidates in the middle or at the bottom of the alphabetical order. It also showed that,
 
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among voters who cast all the available votes for one party's candidates, there was a marked bias towards those listed higher in the alphabetical order. Several councils also provided evidence that, when ballot papers had 12 or more candidates for three seats, a significant number of voters used only one or two votes—appearing not to find the third from the favoured party on the ballot paper.

Other factors, such as incumbency, influence the outcome of elections but research that included those factors still demonstrates a bias towards those with names at the start of the alphabet.

There is little evidence that parties or candidates seek to exploit the alphabetical listing by changing their surnames. For example, we have yet to see the appearance of a Robert Aardvark-Silk. I doubt that, if I sought election in a multi-vacancy election, I would choose to use my husband's name to bump me up the ballot paper from "M" to "B"—although, as he is called Bates, I would find myself above many famous names—Blair, Blunkett and Brown, to name but three.

Australia, which uses a randomised system for ballot papers, has experience of people seeking advantage. A famous example is the 1937 Senate election in New South Wales, when four candidates were elected with the names Armour, Armstrong, Arnold and Ashley.

In the case of the use of party lists, such as in the European elections, a campaigning organisation could well try to highlight its cause by adopting a name beginning with "A", in the way some companies do to secure first listing in the "Yellow Pages" telephone directory. A recent article in the Financial Times highlighted concerns that, under the alphabetical system, the British National party usually appears at the top of the list.

Residents of London know that, as part of mayoral elections, they are sent a booklet that includes the manifestos of all the candidates. After the first mayoral election, some candidates complained that the public were likely to read only the first few manifestos, and that that gave an advantage to those with names higher up the alphabet. For the election held earlier this year, a randomised system was adopted, with lots being drawn and candidates' manifestos appearing in the booklet in the order in which they had been drawn. However, the practice of listing candidates on the ballot paper in alphabetical order remained.

Many countries list candidates alphabetically on their ballot papers, but a research project on voting systems, the Epic project, found 16 countries that use randomisation for elections to their first Chamber, including Australia, Belgium and Bosnia and Herzegovina. I have not made a detailed study of the different forms of randomisation that are used. However, in Australia, there is a double randomisation system, whereby all candidates are first randomly allocated a number and then the numbers are drawn again. That determines the outcome on the ballot paper. The process is not unduly bureaucratic and burdensome on returning officers and, in my view, would not therefore be in any way detrimental to the process. I understand that drawing lots for the publication of manifestos for the London mayoral election took place openly and was seen to be satisfactory.
 
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The Electoral Commission, in its report on ballot paper design, goes on to suggest that party candidates could be grouped together and that that would assist both electors and counting clerks. That would be achieved by substituting party for candidate in the first draw and then by further randomisation of the candidates' names in the party block.

I am not seeking to add to our view of the world another form of discrimination—that of alphabetism—although my experience of talking to hon. Members whose name begins with "W", a number of whom are in the Chamber today, is that they can tell of many instances in which they feel that their position in the alphabet has affected them. I am seeking to ensure that our electoral system should address the concern that, in elections in which more than one candidate is to be elected, there should be no possibility that having a name beginning with a letter near the beginning of the alphabet could confer an advantage.

Pamela Gordon, the Electoral Commissioner who chaired the review of ballot paper design, has stated:

"The design of ballot papers and nomination of candidates are two crucial areas of election administration. The public's ability to access democracy is dependent on their effectiveness."

The randomisation of names through a system similar to that used in Australia would not be cumbersome or difficult to understand. It would provide the reassurance that accidents of birth—or, indeed, marriage—are not influencing our democratic process and affecting the outcome of elections.             

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