Electoral Administration Bill

A lot of the principles are the same. As I said in replying to the noble Baroness, Lady Hanham, on previous amendments, we recognise that there are huge areas in which what happens at a local level and what happens in the CORE will be the same. As I tried to indicate, the way in which regulations govern the local registers will mean slight differences, because we are creating an overarching record. The benefit to the Electoral Commission and political parties is easier and greater access to information that is of value to them. Rather than there being more than 400 individual schemes, which are built on very different software packages and some of which are quite difficult to access, we propose one scheme for those who would find it useful and valuable to be able to gain access to it. We have also discussed the potential that such a scheme might have. The noble Lord, Lord Greaves, indicated that it would be beneficial. I have indicated that I would support it, but I have indicated also that where one might be moving in any sense away from a local system of voting, that would rightly and properly require further primary legislation. The legislation is about offering opportunities to those who are able to use the record to use it effectively. Since we propose to build the system incrementally rather than in a big-bang way, we will be able also to look at the opportunities that it might give us for anti-fraud measures, which are important for the future. It will also give an opportunity to political parties and the Electoral Commission to deal with some of the issues which they face—for example, checking donations—in a simpler way.