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Session 2009 - 10
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General Committee Debates
Delegated Legislation Committee Debates



The Committee consisted of the following Members:

Chairman: Mr. Joe Benton
Bottomley, Peter (Worthing, West) (Con)
Etherington, Bill (Sunderland, North) (Lab)
Holmes, Paul (Chesterfield) (LD)
Howarth, David (Cambridge) (LD)
Ingram, Mr. Adam (East Kilbride, Strathaven and Lesmahagow) (Lab)
Jones, Helen (Vice-Chamberlain of Her Majesty's Household)
Laing, Mrs. Eleanor (Epping Forest) (Con)
Leigh, Mr. Edward (Gainsborough) (Con)
Lepper, David (Brighton, Pavilion) (Lab/Co-op)
Purchase, Mr. Ken (Wolverhampton, North-East) (Lab/Co-op)
Rifkind, Sir Malcolm (Kensington and Chelsea) (Con)
Smith, Geraldine (Morecambe and Lunesdale) (Lab)
Todd, Mr. Mark (South Derbyshire) (Lab)
Ward, Claire (Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Justice)
Wright, Mr. Anthony (Great Yarmouth) (Lab)
Wright, Jeremy (Rugby and Kenilworth) (Con)
Eliot Wilson, Committee Clerk
† attended the Committee

Twelfth Delegated Legislation Committee

Tuesday 2 March 2010

[Mr. Joe Benton in the Chair]

Draft Service Voters’ Registration Period Order 2010
4.30 pm
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Justice (Claire Ward): I beg to move,
That the Committee has considered the draft Service Voters’ Registration Period Order 2010.
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr. Benton. The order, to be made under section 15(9) of the Representation of the People Act 1983, relates to the statutory time limit on the period of a service declaration made by those electors who are qualified to make such a declaration under section 14(1) of the 1983 Act. I shall talk about the technical amendments later. First, I should like to set out some context and explain why the Government think that the order is a good way to support the electoral registration of service voters.
As hon. Members will know, members of the armed forces—together with their spouses or civil partners—who are not resident in the United Kingdom are part of a category referred to for the purposes of electoral administration as service voters. Other members of the category include people employed in the service of the Crown abroad, such as members of the diplomatic service. As such, they are entitled to register as an elector under a service declaration. That has allowed for special arrangements to be made in respect of the fact that they are likely to be serving overseas at any given time. Those electors who have made a service declaration are registered in pursuance of it for a period of 12 months or—if they are a member of the armed services, or the spouse or civil partner of a member of the armed services—for three years. At the end of the 12-month or three-year period as appropriate, the service voter can make a fresh service declaration and application for registration as an elector.
The Government remain of the view that a time limit of some length on the period of a service declaration is necessary to maintain the integrity and accuracy of the electoral register. Indeed, existing primary legislation cements that view and enables the service declaration period to be extended only to a maximum of five years for members of the armed forces and their spouses or civil partners. Other service voters continue to benefit only from a 12-month period.
Let us say that service personnel were registered indefinitely. They would be likely to continue their very mobile careers, and would perhaps expect to be re-registered automatically in any new UK constituency in which they might come to be resident. Some might fail to re-register when moving constituencies and disfranchise themselves unknowingly as a result.
Mrs. Eleanor Laing (Epping Forest) (Con): On that point, is the Minister’s argument that because someone has been in the armed forces for some years and might have got used to the fact that they were automatically registered, once they have left the armed forces and are no longer automatically registered, they will not think that they then have a duty to register themselves? I think that is what she is saying, but it might not be. I hope that it is not, and if it is not, I am giving her the opportunity to clarify that.
Claire Ward: This is simply a practical exercise. If someone registers for three years, they may move constituency within that period. The reality is that if they returned to try to vote within the three-year period, they might find that the address at which they were registered differed from their current one. They might assume, because of the process whereby they can register for a much longer period, that they are registered where they are hoping to vote and might find that actually they are registered at a previous address. We are seeking to ensure, as much as possible, that people remain on the electoral register and have the opportunity to vote. That is why there is a time limit, and why there is a five-year limit in the legislation.
Registering service personnel to vote in one place for an indefinite period has, in previous decades, created unhealthy inaccuracies in the electoral register, which led to the introduction of a 12-month limitation on service voter registrations in the Representation of the People Act 2000.
Peter Bottomley (Worthing, West) (Con): It always helps to be able to be accountable under the measure, and to be able to manage. Can the Minister give us any indication of how unhealthy the register was and how much worse the situation became when the changes were made?
Claire Ward: I will come back to that and try to provide as much information as I can.
As an exception, a power was inserted at the same time that allowed secondary legislation to increase the service declaration period to a maximum of five years for members of the armed forces and their spouses and, later, their civil partners. The Service Voters’ Registration Period Order 2006, made under section 15(9) of the RPA 1983 as inserted by the Electoral Administration Act 2006, extended the declaration period from one year to three years, because that was seen as a typical length for a military posting overseas. I should add that the Secretary of State has powers under section 15(9) of the 1983 Act to substitute another period not exceeding five years, as they think appropriate.
The order will amend the provisions that enable members of the armed forces and their spouses or civil partners to register to vote under a service declaration. It will extend the statutory time limit on a declaration made by those who are entitled, and who wish to register in that way, from the current limit of three years to a period of five years which, as I have said, is the maximum extension permitted by existing primary legislation. We propose that the order, which applies to the United Kingdom as a whole, should come into force the day after it is made.
The order will require amendments to current legislation in three respects. First, section 15(2)(a) of the 1983 Act, which governs service declarations, will now have the effect that service declarations made by members of the armed services and their spouses and civil partners will last for five years. Furthermore, the order and section 15(2) of the 1983 Act will operate together automatically to extend any subsisting declaration in place when the order comes into force, so that it lapses five years after the date on which it was originally made, rather than three years from that date.
Secondly, the following consequential amendments to secondary legislation will be required. Article 3 of the order makes a consequential amendment to regulation 25(3)(b) of the Representation of the People (England and Wales) Regulations 2001. The amendment ensures that a service voter, or spouse or civil partner, to whom the order applies will be written to by their electoral registration officer to remind them to renew their service declarations three months before the end of the new five-year period.
Peter Bottomley: This question may help to speed up proceedings. Most people will have their name and address registered with the electoral returning officer. We are moving towards the electronic age. Are there any suggestions that part of the Government’s technology drive will allow electoral registration officers to collect e-mails or mobile telephone numbers, so that text messages and e-mails can be sent as well as letters by post?
Claire Ward: Obviously, a lot of work is being done on the advancement of electoral registration and the impact of technology. I am sure that that issue could be looked at.
Articles 4 and 5 make corresponding consequential amendments to the Representation of the People (Scotland) Regulations 2001 and the Representation of the People (Northern Ireland) Regulations 2008 respectively.
Thirdly, the Service Voters’ Registration Period Order 2006 and the Service Voters’ Registration Period (Northern Ireland) Order 2008 will be revoked. Those proposals follow an announcement made by Lord Bach on 17 June last year. They are also the result of the Government consulting representatives of service families, the Ministry of Defence, the Electoral Commission and hon. Members from across the House. They aim to address concerns shared by many, both inside and outside the House, that all service personnel who are stationed overseas in Her Majesty’s armed forces, especially those men and women on active service in Afghanistan and other parts of the world, should be allowed ample opportunity to register and cast their votes, irrespective of their location at the time of an election. It is surely the duty of this House to ensure that our service personnel are allowed to participate effectively as electors in the democratic system.
The order also addresses concerns that have been expressed in this House and another place about registration rates among members of the armed forces. The Ministry of Defence undertakes an annual service voting survey, which gives an indication of registration and electoral trends among armed forces personnel. The 2008 survey carried out by the MOD’s statistical branch, Defence Analytical Services and Advice, estimated that 65 per cent. of service personnel, and only 48 per cent. of those service personnel stationed overseas, were registered.
In the MOD survey, a significant number of service personnel commented that registering was important and that they considered themselves to have a personal responsibility to do so. Our aim must be to facilitate the process of registration, not to remove a service person’s ability to take responsibility for exercising their democratic rights. Increasing the declaration period to five years would still retain that individual responsibility.
Although the Government believe that the current three-year declaration period has encouraged more service personnel to register and has helped to maintain an accurate register, the current deployment situation does not always fit into three-year postings. It is the duty of the House to improve convenience for this category of elector.
Many in the House remain concerned that more needs to be done to register service personnel. In response to such concerns, we propose in the order to extend the service declaration period to the maximum allowable under the 1983 Act. Announcing the proposal in another place last year, Lord Bach stated:
“An increase to five years offers the additional benefit of being the same period as the one in which postal voters must provide new identifiers. Indeed, the service voters’ registration form, as issued by the Electoral Commission, includes a postal vote application.”—[Official Report, House of Lords, 17 June 2009; Vol. 771, c. 1144.]
The draft order strikes the right balance, addressing the desire to improve convenience for service personnel and their families and to encourage higher registration rates in that category of elector, while reflecting the need to maintain an accurate electoral register. I commend the order to the Committee.
4.41 pm
Mrs. Laing: May I echo the Minister’s words and say what a pleasure it is for the whole Committee to serve under you, Mr. Benton?
Before I address the Minister’s remarks, let me make a short procedural point. This important order is being dealt with by the Ministry of Justice, but at the same time that we are debating it in Committee, the Constitutional Reform and Governance Bill, which is also being dealt with by the Ministry of Justice, is being debated on the Floor of the House. That has led to a clash for some us, and we are grateful to the Minister for stepping in to fill the role normally taken by the Minister of State, Ministry of Justice, the right hon. Member for North Swindon (Mr. Wills). Of course, the Minister who is present discharges her duties with excellence as usual, but it is not easy for her to deal with this clash, and it certainly is not easy for the Opposition to deal with it, simply because we have fewer people on our side of the House at present. To put it in the kindest possible way, it was not very thoughtful of the House authorities to timetable debate on these two issues at exactly the same moment.
Having made that procedural point, let me say that I agree with the Minister’s general argument. The Opposition totally support the Government’s proposals, although the Minister will not be surprised to hear me say that the reforms in the order do not go anything like far enough. As far as they go, however, I totally support them, and my colleagues and I will not oppose them.
Ministers frequently say how important it is that the electoral register be not only accurate, but comprehensive. However, we are talking about a huge chunk of people who are serving their country, risking their lives and, in some cases, laying down their lives, but who are unable—as are their spouses or civil partners—to take part in the democratic process; they are effectively disfranchised. The Minister said, apparently with some pride, that the last DASA survey showed that 65 per cent. of service personnel were registered to vote. That is an absolute disgrace. It means that 35 per cent.—well over a third—of the people who are out there risking their lives for this country cannot cast their vote in an election. Frankly, that just is not good enough.
I appreciate that the Government are taking steps through the order, but we are, at most, three months from a general election, and possibly much closer than that. The very longest period that there can be from today to a general election is three months and a day. The Government have at last come forward with their proposals to extend the registration period, but they will have no effect whatever in getting more service personnel to register so that they can cast their vote, if they choose to do so, in the forthcoming general election.
No one on the Labour Benches will be able to argue against what I have said: what we are doing this afternoon will have no effect on the general election. I have raised the matter many times. The last time was on the Floor of the House, during Justice questions on 5 January, when I challenged the Minister of State, Ministry of Justice, the right hon. Member for North Swindon, to promise that more people in the armed forces would be able to vote at the general election than did in 2005, when only 60 per cent. were eligible. At the last general election, 40 per cent. of the people who were fighting and risking their lives for this country could not take part in the democratic process. This time, if the present figure is, as the Under-Secretary said, 65 per cent., more than a third of those people will not be able to cast their votes.
I shall be brief as we are about to have a vote in the Chamber. The current state of affairs is not surprising, as 42 per cent. of respondents to the 2005 DASA survey did not even receive an electoral registration form. I appreciate that the Government say that they have taken action and that the “Register to vote” booklet has been distributed among service voters. It is not a good statistic, however, when we must say that 44 per cent. of those asked said they had received it.
Frankly, the Government are not trying very hard to make sure that people in the armed services can vote in a general election. It would better if the Government now organised a proper campaign, to ensure that service personnel know, for example, that they can vote by post or proxy. Proxy is the most efficient way, but we appreciate that many people do not want to vote by proxy because they do not have someone whom they can trust to cast their vote; and who can blame them?
The Government should end service voter re-registration, so that those who declare as a service voter must do so only once. That is what a Conservative Government would do.
4.49 pm
Sitting suspended for a Division in the House.
5.4 pm
On resuming
 
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