Electoral Administration Bill

I will resist the temptation to get involved in what will be very important part of our Committee deliberations. Noble Lords will know that I am keen that we spend the right amount of time on that, so I will resist all temptations to get involved in that debate. The noble Lord, Lord Norton of Louth, was right to say to my noble friend Lord Campbell-Savours that the scheme has the potential—noble Lords are warming to it as I see—to allow us to see whether we have problems in those areas. The noble Lord, Lord Greaves, spoke effectively to his amendments. I will not take up the Committee’s time by going over his arguments. The noble Lord asked how many postal votes it would be appropriate for an ERO to look at closely. As he knows, the current number is six. He will also know that question 22 in the consultation paper asked what the number ought to be. We do not specify a number, but I am inclined towards that one. As the noble Lord knows, we received the amendments quite late on Friday. With the weekend intervening, I have not had the opportunity to do as much work as I would like to have done on this issue. If he will allow me, I will take the amendment away and check the wording with officials and with parliamentary counsel. I also want to check the details of the Royal Mail redirection service, which is relevant. If the noble Lord will withdraw his amendment for the time being, I will get back to him before Report, and talk to other noble Lords as well, to see whether we should modify the provisions in the manner that has been suggested. Having listened to the debate, I recognise that there is a quite a lot of support for our thinking about the matter very carefully. On Amendment No. 21, the noble Lord made the argument very clearly. The anti-fraud mechanisms should not flag up instances of an individual voting more than once in the context of proxy. The noble Lord referred to people who look after a number of family members. I agree with the aim of the amendment but I need to see whether this is the most appropriate drafting, as we have problems with it. On that basis, I am pretty confident that the noble Lord will feel able to withdraw his amendment.