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Baroness Maddock: My Lords, in his reply the Minister said that he had read the proceedings in the other place. Obviously we cannot decide precisely what happens in Wales here, but local authorities have used the excuse that people had made themselves intentionally homeless when they were dismissed from the Armed Forces. We should try to make clear in the guidance that they are not allowed to do that. If the Minister reads what was said in the other place it will become quite clear.
Lord Rooker: My Lords, I shall take that point on board when looking at the guidance. If someone otherwise meets the test of being homeless unintentionally, it would be wholly unreasonable and irrational for public institutions to make the connection that he has made himself intentionally homeless as a result of losing a job.
I accept the point made by the noble Earl, Lord Listowel. Everyone accepts the propensity of ex-offenders to re-offend when they are homeless. That was made clear in the recent report of the Social Exclusion Unit.
I believe that I have covered all the points that have been raised. I am grateful for the support of the House. I came late as Minister to this legislation. It passed through the House during the last Session, when I was at the Home Office. The legislation itself goes back to a Private Member's Bill introduced by the former Liberal Democrat Member for the Isle of Wight, Stephen Ross. I pay tribute to that legislation. It was the gateway through which Parliament dealt with
homelessness in a different way than in the past. I am pleased that we have taken the legislation to the point it has now reached. I commend the order to the House.On Question, Motion agreed to.
Representation of the People (England and Wales) (Amendment) Regulations 2002
8.2 p.m.
Lord Bassam of Brighton rose to move, That the draft regulations laid before the House on 27th June be approved [34th Report from the Joint Committee].
The noble Lord said: My Lords, in moving these regulations on behalf of my noble friend Lady Scotland, I shall speak also to the draft Representation of the People (Scotland) (Amendment) Regulations 2002.
The two sets of regulations are very similar save for some differences reflecting differing electoral provisions and institutions in Scotland, but their effect is the same. Similar regulations have been laid relating to Northern Ireland, but they differ in some important points of detail and are being considered separately. I shall refer primarily to the England and Wales regulations and mention any important differences which appear in the Scottish draft regulations.
These regulations are necessary to implement Section 9 of the Representation of the People Act 2000. Your Lordships will be aware that this provides for two versions of the electoral registers to be compiled—that is, a full register containing, as now, the names and addresses of every elector and an edited version to contain the details of only those electors who have not indicated via an opt-out box that they object to their details appearing on the version of the register which is available for commercial purposes.
These regulations seek to strike a balance between the right of individual electors to their personal privacy and the needs of industry to have access to personal information when this can clearly be demonstrated to be in the public interest. The regulations we are debating today represent the results of wide consultation. They are constrained, as with all legislation, by the need to be compliant with the Human Rights and Data Protection Acts. By proposing to permit access to the registers for specified, defined commercial purposes these regulations provide a reduction to the financial burdens placed on some sectors of the financial services industry, a move welcomed by the companies concerned.
I do not intend to speak on each of the new regulations but I shall say something on the major provisions. New Regulations 92 to 94 place general restrictions on the sale of and access to the full registers and on the use which recipients of the register may make of the data. I emphasise that nothing in these regulations prevents members of the general public from inspecting the full registers. Indeed, it is essential that electors should continue to be able to do so, so
that they can check to see that they themselves are correctly registered and also be able to object to the registration of anyone who they think is not entitled to be included. The full registers will be open for inspection at council offices and other appropriate places, where they can be supervised to prevent unauthorised copying. The public will be able to take hand-written notes but not to make photocopies.New Regulation 103 provides for the supply of the full register to elected representatives—that is to MPs, MEPs, Members of the National Assembly for Wales, local councillors, the Mayor of London and London Assembly members and elected mayors. They may receive free of charge the parts of the register covering the areas which they represent and can use the information for all electoral purposes and for any purpose connected with their office. For example, if an elected representative wants to contact a group of his constituents, he may refer to the register to ascertain its address. He may pass the register to his research assistant to assist with constituency matters. The full registers may continue to be used as a tool in the work which representatives are elected to carry out.
New Regulation 108 provides for the supply of the full register to candidates at a parliamentary, European parliamentary or local government elections for electoral purposes. This allows candidates to know precisely who the electors are so that they can carry out their canvassing in the traditional way. Provision for copies of the full register for electoral purposes to holders of elective offices in terms of the Scottish Parliament are not made in these regulations. They will be provided for in a new order to be made under Section 12 of the Scotland Act later in the year. That will deal with a range of matters concerned with elections to the Scottish Parliament.
New Regulation 104 allows MPs, MEPs, members of the devolved Parliament and Assemblies, local councillors, elected mayors, and so on, and also candidates at parliamentary, local government or authority elections, to have free copies of all the full registers to enable them to comply with the statutory controls on political donations contained in Schedule 7 to the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000 and Schedule 2A to the Representation of the People Act 1983.
New Regulation 105 provides for the supply of the full register to local constituency parties for electoral and electoral registration purposes. These purposes have been deliberately defined in a very broad way so that electioneering can continue unhindered. There are no restrictions on elected representatives using the full registers for canvassing or for any other activities connected with the electoral process. It is however not permitted for the full registers to be passed to charities which might previously have used them for local fundraising.
I am aware that fundamental questions were asked in another place about the nature of "electoral purposes". It is a broad concept and it is right to adopt a broad interpretation of its meaning. The Government's view is that it should include anything
that is for the purpose of seeking election and representing the public in a democracy. It is right that it includes fundraising by a party or a politician for purposes connected with elections. It would be a different matter if money were to be raised to buy equipment for a local hospital or for the refurbishing of a party's offices. But fundraising for the core purpose of communicating with electors and campaigning clearly counts as "electoral purposes". The Government do not wish to tie this down too much in regulations. If we were to do so we would create the contrary effect and restrict various things that we might all agree should be legitimately part of the electoral process.New Regulation 113 provides for the sale of the full register to government departments and restricts its use to the prevention and detection of crime and the enforcement of the criminal law; the vetting of employees and applicants for employment where such vetting is required; and the supply and disclosure of information to an "authorised person", who may not disclose information contained in it except to other authorised persons, and only for use for the purposes for which such a person could obtain the full register directly under these regulations.
This provides the means for legislative support to secure the effective participation of all local authorities in the LASER project now being proposed by the Improvement and Development Agency to clean and standardise electoral register data in electronic format. I should make it clear that we are currently considering the agency's business case, received at the end of last month, and while we strongly support developing an electronic register we have yet to decide whether the current proposals will be the best way forward for everyone.
I now come to that section of the regulations which specifies what limited commercial use is to be permitted of the full registers. Many commercial companies have used information from the electoral registers for many years and for a range of purposes, including direct marketing and credit reference checks. A High Court case last year made it clear that electoral registration officers had been wrong to sell the registers for those purposes without first giving electors the right to opt-out of having their personal details sold in that way.
The Government have carefully considered the situation and have consulted with bodies representing commercial interests such as the British Bankers' Association, the Finance and Leasing Association, the Direct Marketing Association, the credit reference agencies themselves and numerous others. All have impressed on us the importance of the electoral registers as a tool in checking a person's identity and consequently their credit-worthiness.
In addition, banks and financial institutions have a statutory obligation under the Money Laundering Regulations to verify the identity of their clients. In complying with the Money Laundering Regulations, banks and financial institutions make extensive use of the electoral register to verify information about the
identity and address of their customers. They usually carry out these checks using credit reference agencies as their agents. If institutions were denied access to the full register to make these checks and had to rely on lower and poorer quality information, there would be a lower level of compliance with the Money Laundering Regulations.The Government are, however, very much aware of the importance of the human rights of individuals, in this case the right to a private life and to participate in free and fair elections. Although such rights are qualified ones, which can be interfered with in the pursuit of a legitimate objective of the state, we are mindful that the extent and nature of any such interference must be proportionate to the importance of and benefits to be obtained from the interference. We have therefore given very careful consideration to the balance to be struck between any interference with individual rights and the public benefits obtained.
The Government are proposing regulations that permit the sale of the full register to credit reference agencies; first, to enable financial institutions to meet their statutory obligations to prevent money laundering and, secondly, to enable credit checks to be fully undertaken.
In relation to money laundering, the credit reference agencies will be permitted to provide information, from a full register that they have obtained, to banks and financial institutions for the purposes of these bodies meeting their statutory obligations. It is clear that the strong public interest in enforcing the laws against money-laundering and the relatively limited purposes for which access is permitted, result in the balance being in favour of those purposes.
The second category of cases where the Government have concluded that there should be continued access to the full register is for credit reference agencies when vetting applications for credit. Without access to the full register it would be more difficult for lenders to verify an applicant's identity and hence assess the credit risk.
The consequences of denying credit reference agencies access to the full register in terms of increased fraud, increased cost of credit, and reduced availability of credit, especially to those at risk of financial exclusion, amounts to a strong public interest for continued full access. This public interest can be balanced against the following two factors which relate to the extent of the interference with human rights which will be permitted.
In cases where an application for credit is the first transaction between any individual and a financial institution, there is, in any event, a statutory obligation to verify identity under the Money Laundering Regulations. That will usually be fulfilled through a check with a credit reference agency. Applicants for credit are always told that their details will be checked as part of the assessment process and their consent to such checks is required before these can be undertaken.
There is a clear public interest in there being efficient and prudent availability of credit to all sectors of the economy. It is the Government's view that there would be a real risk to this continued availability of credit if the full registers were no longer available.
Given the strong public interests in facilitating the use of this information for identity checking in relation to the provision of credit, the overlap between the use of the full register for money laundering and credit assessment checks, and the fact that people have to consent to the checks being made, the Government consider that the interference with individual privacy is proportionate to the public benefits obtained.
I am satisfied that this limited commercial access represents an important public service and pursues a legitimate public aim in a manner which is proportionate to the intrusion into individual privacy and is therefore compliant with the Human Rights Act 1998 and the European Convention on Human Rights. The Electoral Commission, while maintaining its own basic view that electoral registers should not be made available for any commercial purposes, has publicly stated that it welcomes the Government's intention to put in place a comprehensive regulatory framework to ensure compliance with the human rights requirements.
Should the limits imposed by these regulations on authorised recipients of the full registers be breached, new Regulation 115 creates a criminal offence for information from the full registers to be passed to an unauthorised person, or for an unauthorised person to use such data, however he or she came by them.
The regulations implement the decision of Parliament to allow electors to decide, subject to some exceptions in the public interest, the limit to which their personal information may be used. They represent a legitimate balance between individual rights and the public interest. I commend them to the House.
Moved, That the draft regulations laid before the House on 27th June be approved [34th Report from the Joint Committee].—(Lord Bassam of Brighton.)
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