Draft Electoral Registration and Administration Act 2013 (Transitional Provisions) (Amendment) Order 2014
Draft Electoral Registration (Disclosure of Electoral Registers) (Amendment) Regulations 2014
The Committee consisted of the following Members:
† Bebb, Guto (Aberconwy) (Con)
Bradshaw, Mr Ben (Exeter) (Lab)
† Burt, Alistair (North East Bedfordshire) (Con)
† Clark, Greg (Minister of State, Cabinet Office)
Cooper, Rosie (West Lancashire) (Lab)
† Crouch, Tracey (Chatham and Aylesford) (Con)
† Donohoe, Mr Brian H. (Central Ayrshire) (Lab)
† Fabricant, Michael (Lichfield) (Con)
Gilbert, Stephen (St Austell and Newquay) (LD)
† Hands, Greg (Treasurer of Her Majesty's Household)
† McGovern, Jim (Dundee West) (Lab)
Mowat, David (Warrington South) (Con)
† Phillipson, Bridget (Houghton and Sunderland South) (Lab)
† Shannon, Jim (Strangford) (DUP)
† Twigg, Stephen (Liverpool, West Derby) (Lab/Co-op)
† Ward, Mr David (Bradford East) (LD)
† Weatherley, Mike (Hove) (Con)
Matthew Hamlyn, Committee Clerk
† attended the Committee
Ninth Delegated Legislation Committee
Tuesday 25 February 2014
[Nadine Dorries in the Chair]
Draft Electoral Registration and Administration Act 2013 (Transitional Provisions) (Amendment) Order 2014
8.55 am
The Minister of State, Cabinet Office (Greg Clark): I beg to move,
That the Committee has considered the draft Electoral Registration and Administration Act 2013 (Transitional Provisions) (Amendment) Order 2014.
The Chair: With this it will be convenient to consider the draft Electoral Registration (Disclosure of Electoral Registers) (Amendment) Regulations 2014.
Greg Clark: It is a pleasure, Ms Dorries, to serve under your chairmanship.
Preparations for individual electoral registration are well advanced, and implementation is on schedule for June. The order and regulations before the Committee will build on that good progress by allowing matching to begin slightly earlier than originally planned and by allowing electoral registration officers to continue to test the digital system for as long as they wish, rather than stopping now. That will enable IER to get off to the best possible start.
The draft order will allow confirmation matching to begin nearly a week early, by moving the date from 16 June to 10 June. We expect a benefit from the change, with an increase from 64% to 83% in the proportion of unconfirmed electors receiving an invitation to register in July. We will therefore ensure that as many people as possible receive a letter before August, and it is a sensible measure to maximise the impact of such an invitation. The draft regulations will enable the testing of the IER digital service, including test data matching, to continue for as long as necessary before going live, ensuring that the system can do everything required of it once IER begins.
The changes build on the development work carried out over the past year. The original regulations made in March 2013 were introduced purely to allow a dry run of the process for confirming existing electors. The norms of data protection require that such an exercise, which occurs before the decision to proceed with IER, should take place for a limited time. The dry run was successful, and orders have been introduced to confirm IER, so it is appropriate to allow the use of data matching to continue right up to the beginning of IER.
Michael Fabricant (Lichfield) (Con): My right hon. Friend will know that dry runs using small samples often work, but when they are expanded nationally, whether it is systems in Government Departments or
systems with which he may be familiar such as Merlin, they do not always work as they should. Is he confident that this system will?Greg Clark: I am indeed. I am grateful to my hon. Friend for his intervention, as that is one of the reasons for the change. Having completed the dry run successfully, we can conduct an end-to-end test. Electoral registration officers across the country can test the system before it becomes operational across the board, and they will do so for precisely the reasons that he mentioned.
A specific authorisation is required for EROs and the Department for Work and Pensions to continue the data-matching exercise, hence the need for an extension. We have discussed the measures with the Electoral Commission and the Information Commissioner, and they did not raise any objections. In fact, they were persuaded of the benefits of the exercise, given the importance of the transition.
Let me say a word about the movement of the date for the beginning of the confirmation exercise from 16 June to 10 June. There is a temporary removal, only on this occasion, of the objections period for an application to be on the register. That is to allow the transition period to begin six days early. The objections period lasts for five days, during which objections to the inclusion of an application on the electoral roll can be made. Objections can still be made to the registration, rather than to the application for registration and, in addition, the new confirmation process provides far more safeguards. The Electoral Commission has noted that objections to the application are almost never made by EROs, and it is satisfied that this one-off period for the beginning of IER, with extra scrutiny required of EROs, is justified to bring forward the confirmation-matching process envisaged in the order.
In conclusion, the two statutory instruments before the Committee will play a small but important part in the successful implementation of individual electoral registration in Great Britain, and I commend them to the Committee.
9.1 am
Stephen Twigg (Liverpool, West Derby) (Lab/Co-op): It is a pleasure, Ms Dorries, to serve under your chairmanship and to follow the Minister. The Opposition support the proposed changes, and I shall briefly explain why.
We have consistently said that we support individual electoral registration in principle, but we are concerned that the Government are moving too quickly. While the 78% data match in the dry run was welcome, we are focused on the 22%, particularly those parts of society with a high level of under-registration. I welcome the fact that the Minister has proposed a measure that enables testing to continue for a longer period. If he has an opportunity to respond, perhaps he can confirm that, if necessary, he would return to the House and ask for a further period, because the more time available for EROs to get this right at local level the better if the register is to be as complete and accurate as possible.
We know from long-standing evidence that, on the current household registration system, young people, students, private tenants and some black and minority ethnic communities are significantly under-represented
on the register. We have consistently expressed concern, as have many other Members from all parts of the House, that that could be exacerbated by a rapid move to individual electoral registration. We therefore welcome the opportunity to provide more time.This might be an appropriate moment to put on the record the Opposition’s appreciation for the efforts of people who are gearing up for the new system, particularly Bite the Ballot, which organised a successful national voter registration day earlier this month. As part of that campaign, I visited the City of Westminster further education college, where young people were signing up 16 to 18-year-olds to vote on an individual basis. It was an uplifting occasion, and it was encouraging that many young people very much wanted to vote.
The key, as the Opposition have always argued, is to get this right. We need time for careful consideration, and we need to do this properly, which is why we warmly welcome the provisions that allow more time for testing to continue.
Mr Brian H. Donohoe (Central Ayrshire) (Lab): My hon. Friend will know that in Scotland 16 to 18-year-olds will get the vote in the coming elections and referendum.
Stephen Twigg: Absolutely. I warmly welcome that, and we will look closely at the experience in Scotland. As my hon. Friend will know, our right hon. Friend the
Leader of the Opposition has committed our party to lowering the voting age to 16, which will be an important component of our manifesto for next year’s election. If we had a voting age of 16, that might allay concerns about young people falling off the register, because schools could engage in the process of getting 15-year-olds to register so that when they reached their 16th birthday they acquired the right to vote. That is not a matter for discussion today, but my hon. Friend is right to put it on the record. I reaffirm our support for the two proposals under consideration.draft electoral registration (disclosure of electoral registers) (amendment) Regulations 2014
That the Committee has considered the draft Electoral Registration (Disclosure of Electoral Registers) (Amendment) Regulations 2014.—(Greg Clark.)