Mr.
Wills: I will come to the points about service voters in a
moment because, although they are slightly beyond the scope of the
clause, I recognise their importance. The hon. Members for Epping
Forest and for Chichester have described graphically the importance of
such matters to those to whom we all owe a huge debt of gratitude. I
shall do my best to answer the specific questions asked by the hon.
Gentleman. Before I do so, however, we must be clear about the overall
purpose of the clause. It is designed to address a set of issues, which
over the past year have become particularly clear to each member of the
Committee. The
annual canvass of electors takes place each year from early summer to
late autumn, and the purpose of the clause concerns the circumstances
if an election were called during the annual canvass period. That is
not common in recent history, but, as the hon. Lady tried to persuade
us, we can never be certain of anything in this life. We need to be
prepared for all eventualities. If an election were called during that
period, a new application for registration recorded on the canvass form
would result in eligible voters being added to the register for the
poll. At the same time, administrators would be required to remove
non-eligible electors from the
register. As
the law stands, if an election is held during the annual canvass, the
register can be amended in response to applications for registration
made on an individual rolling registration form up to 11 days before
the election. However, administrators may register only electors who
complete and submit a canvass form on the publication of the revised
register at the conclusion of the canvass, which may be after an
election. An application for registration cannot be accepted even where
there is clear evidence that a new elector or electors have moved into
the household from which the form has been returned. The Government
want to do everything we can to ensure that eligible voters are on the
electoral register and have their say at the ballot box. The clause
helps to achieve that
aim. 11.15
am On
the potential disfranchisement of service voters, our proposed measures
should—I say, “should”—help service and
other voters who would otherwise be caught by the existing situation.
My general response to the concerns raised is that we hope and expect
the Bill to be of benefit. No one can rule out unforeseen
consequences—the hon. Member for Chichester spelled out the
risk—because they are, by their very nature, unforeseen, but we
are sensitive to the
issues. The
hon. Gentleman’s first question was about whether I have got
fully up to speed on the issue since taking office. I took on
responsibility for this area about three weeks ago. Am I as up to speed
as I would have been had I been in post for a year? Probably not, but I
am
reasonably up to speed and I hope that I can give
him some reassurance. If, however, there are issues that we cannot
address in
Committee— Mr.
Wills: I recognise the importance of the issues, so I am
happy to address concerns on the margins of the Committee and then
write to all members of the Committee. I shall address some of the
other concerns in a moment, but I am happy to give
way.
Mr.
Tyrie: If the Minister is going to come to those issues, I
am sorry to have
interrupted.
Mr.
Wills: If I do not fully answer all the hon.
Gentleman’s questions now, I will be happy to give way
again. I
say straight away that there is a problem in identifying the degree of
disfranchisement among service voters. That is partly because some of
them are registered at their home address, which is sometimes difficult
for electoral registration officers to determine. That is not
for a second to query that there is an issue. I have no reason
whatever to dispute the evidence given by the hon. Member for
Chichester on the level of disfranchisement in his constituency, but I
merely point out the fact that it is sometimes difficult to
determine.
Mr.
Tyrie: I hope the Minister will not mind if I interrupt a
few times to make suggestions. I put to him the thought that I have
been begging to have him place on the issue for some time—a
commitment to undertake a regular survey of a proportion of service
voters to establish the level of registration in relation to the rest
of the population. That should also include the families. If it were
done, we would have a yardstick—a
measure. Even
if the survey did not provide entirely accurate information, even the
level of change would give us a high degree of information about
whether the Government’s measures were working and how deep the
problem that we have identified since the introduction of PPERA
remained.
The
Chairman: Before the Minister replies, I must remind the
hon. Member for Chichester that I used my discretion earlier. I shall
continue to chair proceedings with a light hand, because I know how
strongly he feels, but once again, this point, in the general sense in
which he is raising it, goes much wider than the clause we are
debating.
Mr.
Wills: I accept your strictures, Sir Nicholas, but I hope
that you will also extend a similarly light touch for a few sentences
during which I shall address the general concern
here. The
hon. Gentleman makes a sensible suggestion and I am happy to carry it
forward. He may be aware—I hope he is—that Ministry of
Justice officials regularly hold round-table discussions with the
Ministry of Defence, the Electoral Commission and others about how best
to tackle the issue. There are regular drives to try to increase
registration among service personnel, encouraging them to
register. I
recognise that the hon. Member for Epping Forest made the important
point that service personnel are often engaged in arduous, difficult
and dangerous circumstances serving our country. In such circumstances,
it is perhaps an unnecessary burden on them to have to
remember to register and to feel obliged to do so when they have other
things on their mind—that was her expression, I think. I
understand that, but it is open to service personnel to appoint a proxy
to vote on their behalf. That may or may not be considered satisfactory
in individual circumstances, but it is available to them. It can
continue indefinitely, although there are certain
restrictions. I
hope that I have said enough in those few words to reassure hon.
Members that we take the issue extremely seriously, as do the Ministry
of Defence and the Electoral Commission. That is not to say that there
is no room for improvement. I am happy, in my ministerial capacity,
outwith the Committee’s
remit—
Mr.
Tyrie: Will the Minister give
way?
Mr.
Wills: I will in a moment, but I want to give this
assurance before I return to the substance of the clause. I am happy to
carry on a dialogue with all hon. Members who are concerned about this
issue and who have service personnel in their constituencies to ensure
that we get it right. It is an important matter and we want to address
it
clearly.
Mr.
Tyrie: I met the Minister before he took office, so I know
that he will take the issue seriously and look at it carefully. He has
had only a few weeks to start thinking about it, and perhaps asking him
to be up to speed was not quite the phrase that I should have used on
the spur of the moment. The key issue with respect to the clause is
whether there has been any consultation. Has there been any
consultation with the Ministry of Defence? Has there been any
consultation to try to establish what effect this will have, if any?
That is a relevant question for him to look at, and if he said a few
words about that I would be grateful.
Mr.
Wills: As I said in my opening remarks, we expect that the
clause will help service personnel and others who will experience
problems before it is brought into effect. We expect that to happen.
The hon. Gentleman has made valuable suggestions for how we can improve
levels of registration and ensure that, subject to the concerns
expressed by the hon. Lady, service personnel are not disfranchised. We
will do everything we can. We think that the clause will provide a
significant improvement in circumstances should an election be held
during the annual canvass period and I hope that the Committee will
judge that it should be part of the Bill.
Question
put and agreed
to. Clause
12 ordered to stand part of the Bill.
Clause
13Local
returning officers for elections to the European
Parliament Question
proposed, That the clause stand part of the
Bill.
Mr.
Alan Reid (Argyll and Bute) (LD): I welcome you to the
Chair, Sir Nicholas. I support clause 13. It will make for a more
streamlined administration if the European elections are run by local
authority returning
officers. If those elections were run under
parliamentary boundaries, the returning officers would be operating
outwith the area or the council in which they are senior officer. The
proposals make sense and it will make for a streamlined administration
if the elections are run based on local authority boundaries. However,
I want to raise a concern in relation to Scotland and Wales. I
understand that this year, the clause will impact in Scotland and Wales
only. As a result of the order that has already been passed to change
the council elections in England to the same day as the European
election, council returning officers will run the European elections in
England. In Scotland and Wales, however, the present rules state that
the returning officers for parliamentary constituencies run the
elections.
The Electoral
Commission has expressed concern that, as the Bill may not receive
Royal Assent until March, the change will happen within only two or
three months of polling day. The commission has always expressed the
view that changes in legislation that affect elections should be put in
place at least six months before the election date. Returning officers
in Scotland and Wales have also expressed concern that if the change
was to come into effect in March there might not be enough time,
because preparations for the European elections will already have
started.
I want to ask
the Minister what his intentions are for bringing the clause into
effect. Will he take the advice of the Electoral Commission and
electoral administrators in Scotland and Wales, and not bring the
clause into effect for Scotland and Wales until after this
year’s European
elections?
The
Chairman: Admirably
succinct.
Mrs.
Laing: The hon. Member for Argyll and Bute has just
expressed most of the concerns that I would have expressed, having also
discussed the matter with the Electoral Commission. When the Electoral
Commission comes forward with concerns, we must take it
seriously—it is not doing so for any reason other than to try to
make the system work better. Although I understand what clause 13 says
and what it brings about, I cannot quite understand why the Government
are bothering to make this change to a system that appeared to work
perfectly well before. Is this because the Government have been told by
the European Commission that this is the right thing to do in respect
of European elections? [Interruption.] The Minister
indicates that that is not the case. I accept that and will put that to
one side. I am delighted, because in the United Kingdom we are
perfectly capable of running our own elections the way we always have
done, without any interference from those who sometimes think that they
know better. However, it still puzzles me why this is
necessary.
Mr.
Reid: I can give the hon. Lady an example of an occurrence
in my own constituency during the last local and Scottish elections.
The postal votes are sent out by the returning officer, but because the
Scottish parliamentary constituency and our local council constituency
areas did not match up, it meant that returning officers were returning
postal votes to a different local authority area from that in which
they operated, which caused some confusion. This new clause will
streamline that process.
Mrs.
Laing: I thank the hon. Gentleman for that explanation. I
remember vividly the debate that we had in the Chamber about
coterminosity. Members of the Committee who have never paid any
attention to the workings of the Scottish Parliament or Scottish
electoral issues will wonder what on earth I am talking about.
Opposition Members warned that creating boundaries that are not
coterminous would cause confusion at election times. At that point, we
were talking about the non-coterminosity—it is getting worse.
[Interruption.] The lack of terminosity, if the hon.
Gentleman accepts that term, between Westminster constituencies and
Scottish parliamentary constituencies is bound to lead to some
confusion.
According to
the hon. Gentleman—he is absolutely right—the lack of
terminosity between the European boundaries and the local authority
boundaries, which is, to some extent, inevitable, is causing a problem.
I accept that and I accept that the problem should be put right.
However, the Electoral Commission has concerns, as the hon. Gentleman
has also expressed, about the possibility of this part of the Bill
coming into effect a very short time before the forthcoming European
elections. I share that concern and I therefore wish to express it on
behalf of Opposition Members. I am sure that the Minister will have an
answer to that, so I shall allow him to give us that
answer.
11.30
am Pete
Wishart (Perth and North Perthshire) (SNP): I welcome you
back to the Chair, Sir Nicholas. I was not going to make any remarks on
this particular clause until I heard the curious remarks made by the
hon. Member for Epping Forest. I share the concern of the hon. Member
for Argyll and Bute about the commencement of this clause. We need to
hear from the Minister that there is no intention whatever of
commencing this clause prior to the European elections in 2009, as we
would be in a very curious situation whereby it would have different
applications in Scotland, Wales and England. As the hon. Gentleman
said, there are no local authority elections in Scotland in June, so
there is no order on the Table that would combine local authority and
European elections in Scotland or Wales. In Scotland, under existing
guidelines, matters would still be determined in accordance with
Westminster constituencies. I am not too worried about that because it
is always good to have a snapshot of how well we are doing in our
constituencies when it comes to European elections, but I am concerned
about coterminosity in such
matters. It
is worth while pointing out that Scotland is one region, according to
European elections, and that it is not broken down into Scottish
Parliament or Westminster constituencies. It would therefore be of
benefit for matters to be determined on a local authority basis so that
they would be clearly understood. I hope that the Minister agrees with
the Electoral Commission that no new measures should be put in place
six months before an election, and that we can have a guarantee that
there is no intention of the clause commencing before the European
elections next
year.
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