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Rev. Martin Smyth (Belfast, South) (UUP): I appreciate the point that the hon. Gentleman makes about how the votes could be misused. Is it also possible that one of the problems of younger voters dropping off the register is that registration takes place around August or September when some of them are moving away from home to university or other education establishments? In the past, their mother or father would put their name on the register, but no longer is that being done. Is there not a role for education there as well? It seems to me that once students are away sometimes they are forgotten about.
Mr. Lidington: The hon. Gentleman makes a perfectly valid point.
Finally, may I put it to the Minister that there may be a risk of intimidation? I simply ask the question: is it possible that some people have failed to re-register not through idleness but in order to make it impossible for them to be intimidated into voting for a particular candidate in an election in Northern Ireland? It seems to me that if one's name is on the register in Northern Ireland, one knows that the parties linked to the paramilitaries will—admittedly after the election—in due course have access to a marked register showing which electors have voted and which have not; and that knowledge on the part of the individual elector may make him or her more susceptible to intimidation by those paramilitaries into turning out, into casting a vote and into casting a vote in a particular direction. From the elector's point of view, to follow my hypothesis through, the only way to avoid any risk of that happening would be to decide not to go on the register at all. So is there a risk that in bringing this measure forward we shall actually make it easier in some circumstances for paramilitary groups to intimidate people who are very scared and have chosen not to register to vote in order to avoid being put in that predicament?
Mr. Jeffrey M. Donaldson (Lagan Valley) (DUP): Is the hon. Gentleman aware that members of the security forces, particularly police officers and those serving with the Royal Irish Regiment, have been advised at times—I am talking about security advice—to remove their names from the electoral register because of the threat of being identified through that mechanism and having their homes targeted? Does he share my concern that they may find themselves back on the electoral register again, and could be identified in the same manner as he has just outlined in terms of others who, for different reasons, would be concerned about intimidation?
Mr. Lidington:
The hon. Gentleman makes a perfectly legitimate point. Of course there are a number of electors in Great Britain as well who, for similar reasons, choose to withhold their address details from the published electoral register, and the hon. Gentleman has raised a further point that I hope the Minister will address, and certainly about which I trust that the Government have done some thinking and provided some answers.
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In conclusion, this legislation is all about trying to get the balance right. It is clearly wrong for there to be some tens of thousands of people in Northern Ireland who are qualified to vote but who, as a result of inattention or a lack of publicity or for some other reason, will not be able to exercise the most fundamental of rights in a democracy. On the other hand, can we, through this Bill, provide a mechanism to redress that wrong without risking the framework of safeguards against fraud, impersonation and intimidation that the House enacted back in 2002?
I shall await with interest the Minister's responses to the questions that not just I but other Members of all Opposition parties have posed.
2.24 pm
Lembit Öpik (Montgomeryshire) (LD): The Minister will know that of late I have been increasingly unhappy with the lack of consultation regarding various aspects of legislation and initiatives taken by Northern Ireland Office Ministers in regard to the peace process and other matters. I am glad to say, and I give credit to the Minister and his colleagues for this, that the situation seems to be improving, and I am grateful for the proactive approach that the Government seem now to be taking in regard to consultation and inclusion of all parties in pre-legislative discussions of matters such as this one. It has been very helpful to hear and see the Government's perspective on the need for the Bill in advance of today's debate.
It is also clear that we are not discussing the occasional omission or error that appears on electoral registers. We have all seen or heard of examples where somebody's pet or six-month-old child has turned up on the register, but we are now talking about the massive level of electoral fraud that bedevilled politics in Northern Ireland for a very long time, and to that extent it is salient and appropriate that this matter is being discussed in the run-up to the May elections—although, for the reasons that we discussed earlier and which I need not repeat, it does seem a little curious that the Government have left it so close to the last minute to do so.
I remain slightly sceptical, however, and indeed a little uneasy, about the contents of the Bill, and that is because we supported the Electoral Fraud (Northern Ireland) Act 2002 and we are concerned that the Bill might to an extent dilute it. It was obviously sensible to tackle the huge problem of electoral fraud faced particularly by Northern Ireland, where democracy was really being undermined and where in some cases the outcome of elections may have been affected or compromised by fraud. Indeed, it was the Liberal Democrats, together with the other Opposition parties, who proposed the use of national insurance numbers as an additional personal identifier for electors when registering.
Interestingly, in April 2004 the Electoral Commission published a report on the operation of the Assembly election of November 2003. Paragraph 5.63 of the report stated:
"The findings illustrate that suspicions of electoral fraud among presiding officers had reduced dramatically. This view was endorsed by a number of parties and candidates who felt the
- election was fair and free. One political party said they believed the election held in November 2003 was probably the 'cleanest and fairest' ever held in"
the north of Ireland. The Police Service of Northern Ireland
"confirmed that they had received no reports of attempted personation at any of the polling stations during election day. This was in direct contrast to previous elections when a small number of incidents of personation were reported directly to the police."
So it does seem that the 2002 legislation is working.
I have, however, a concern that the methodology designed to include the 83,000 or 81,000 people whom we have discussed might actually dilute the efficacy of the original legislation. The Minister indicated that there was a problem in a written statement published in Hansard on 30 November 2004. During the annual canvass last autumn, officers of the Electoral Office for Northern Ireland had been, and were, calling at electors' houses to deliver and collect registration forms. Electors were written to and encouraged to fill in those forms, and still we ended up with a deficit of 83,000 people at that time.
Mark Tami: I accept a lot of the points that the hon. Gentleman is making, but does he accept that there might equally be a problem on the other side? There is a distinct possibility that at the next election some people who think they are still on the register will turn up at the polling station, discover that they cannot vote and then perhaps feel that a fraud has been committed against them.
Lembit Öpik: That is an interesting point and a fair one, and I fear that such things happen in every election in England, Wales and Scotland as well as in the north of Ireland. The hon. Gentleman is right, but I am not entirely convinced that the move that we are taking today will necessarily alleviate that problem. In response to what the hon. Gentleman says, I would ask the Minister, in his summation, to share his perspective on whether he thinks there will be a significant problem at the next elections in the Province of people who think they are registered but turn out not to be.
It must also be said that there has been an intensive communication process with the citizens of Northern Ireland to encourage them to fill in their forms, and still we have ended up with 80,000 or so people who have not. I am still not clear in my mind why the Government think that this has occurred. It has been mooted to us by officials that perhaps there is just a lot of apathy about, but I am wondering what the chief electoral officer has actually done between the end of the annual canvass and today to establish why there has been a drop in registration. I suggest to the Minister that it would be helpful to have a definitive analysis of the cause. He also spoke about percentages and, although he may not be able to give us the statistic now, I should be grateful to know the figure for the number of people that it is estimated are not registered to vote in England, Wales and Scotland, because that comparison would probably be rather important. I suggest that there probably comes a ceiling beyond which it is extremely difficult to get people to register.
On the legislation itself, electors can still register through the existing process for inclusion in the April register. Since—to use a phrase that has been used
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before—the dogs in the street now know that the general election is likely to take place on 5 May, there is a particular incentive to do so. Under the rolling registration process, I understand that the last date to register is 10 March. I wonder whether, since the Minister made a statement in November, the officers from the Electoral Office for Northern Ireland have made significant attempts personally to contact the 80,000 or so people who will be affected by the legislation. I accept that that is a very large number, but personal contact may be the single most effective way to overcome the problem. Has anyone attempted to explain to those people that, unless they fill out an electoral registration form, they will not be able to vote? To some extent, that responds to the intervention from the hon. Member for Alyn and Deeside (Mark Tami) a few minutes ago.
Surely it is much better to ensure that electors are registered properly in accordance with the Electoral Fraud (Northern Ireland) Act 2002, rather than through the measures proposed in the Bill. That leads me to my concern: we are setting a precedent that might be rather difficult to get out of in the future. We can discuss the danger of having to re-enact this kind of last minute legislation when we debate the amendments. I seek an assurance from the Minister that he will not use today's debate as a precedent for future debates and say, "Well, back in February 2005, we made this exemption, so it's okay to do it again," because, as far as I am concerned, it is not. This is a one-off occasion when we will rather unhappily pass an exemption that should not be repeated.
A very interesting point was made earlier about the possibility that students will be excluded because, unlike in the past, their parents will not be able to put their names on the register. I am particularly concerned about that, because students are obviously smart and we know that smart people tend to vote for the Alliance party of Northern Ireland. So my sister party stands to lose more than anybody else if students are not on the register. I seek the Minister's perspective on what we can do to ensure that those students do not fall through the net. I feel, therefore, that the Government have not really fully explored some of the alternative measures to those proposed in the Bill. We seek to make some modifications with the amendments that we will be discussing shortly.
Finally, in some correspondence relating directly to the legislation, the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland has written to me and my colleagues in the Liberal Democrat party asking us to reconsider our sceptical stance on the Bill. In fact, he said:
"in the interests of democracy, it is important that the Northern Ireland register is both accurate and comprehensive. I firmly believe that this Bill will help us to achieve that objective."
The Secretary of State and the Minister are more persuaded of the need for that than the Liberal Democrats; nevertheless, on the basis of the Minister's speech and his helpful responses to a number of interventions, the Liberal Democrats will agree to support the Bill today.
2.33 pm
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