Electoral Administration Bill

I would like to think that the hon. Gentleman is right, although I cannot state categorically that I know that to be the case. It remains to be proven. I certainly think it important for people to feel a degree of confidence in the system, and my great worry—which is shared by many outside the Chamber, including the Electoral Commission—is that at present they do not. I believe that over the recent electoral period there was a catastrophic loss of confidence in, particularly, the efficacy of the anti-fraud measures applying to the postal vote. The Government are being thoroughly struthious in not recognising the urgency of the situation: they simply do not want to know what is going on around them. That is unfortunate, because, as I have said, I respect what the Minister is attempting to do, and many of the motivations behind the Bill. As the Minister knows, I have argued—personally and on behalf of my party—in favour of individual registration and personal identifiers. I do not accept that national insurance numbers are the best solution, because I agree with others that they could pose an obstacle to people who are not familiar with their national insurance numbers. I was told by the hon. Member for North-East Hertfordshire (Mr. Heald) that not knowing one’s national insurance number was a middle-class affectation, but I believe that many people do not know theirs, and would be deterred from registering simply because they did not have them to hand—and by the time they had got around to thinking about finding them, the time to register would have passed. That is a genuine concern, of which we should at least be aware.