Electoral Administration Bill

Amendments Nos. 22 and 23 uphold a key data protection principle. I need to check their wording with parliamentary counsel. Although there appears to me to be no problem with them, I am always beholden to parliamentary counsel because it points out things to me that I do not spot. I am happy to accept the amendments on that basis. If the noble Lord will withdraw them for that purpose, we will make sure that they reappear on Report in this style. If they require any amendment, that will be done by the noble Lord and not by me. I am happy to accept the amendments for the reasons that he gave. I am grateful to him for them. I turn to Amendment No. 25. I refer the noble Lord to Clause 2(11). We have made clear that we want to make sure that we keep pretty much to the level of access that currently exists. The only changes that we propose to make to the way in which the national and local schemes operate are in areas where they are inappropriate or do not work. Real questions arise about data protection—I have responsibility for that in my department—when one tries to move beyond the minimum that is required. Clause 2(11) refers to subsections (5) to (7) and (9). We believe that we have recognised where it is appropriate for information to be shared, but we have made clear that we are not giving a general right of access from one ERO to the other. That would take us too far away from the general principles. As the noble Lord will know from what I have already said, I will always check again. If he thinks that there some relevant points that we have not captured, I would be very interested to hear them. We think that we have captured in subsections (5) to (7) and (9) the ways in which information would be shared. Subsection (11) goes beyond that to state that sharing should be within the needs of EROs to share information; that is, within the general principles of data protection. We think that we have captured the areas in which they might need to share information, but we are not prepared to go further than that. Information should not be available in quite that way as a general principle. If on reflection the noble Lord feels that we might have missed something substantial or fundamental, I would be keen to talk to him beyond the Committee stage, but, as a general rule, we do not see that it is right for one ERO to have a general right of access to all the information on CORE.