Electoral Administration Bill

I am grateful to the Minister for that reply. I simply do not understand why something as fundamental as this is left implicit. I accept that it is implicit that, if you are maintaining a register, it ought to be accurate. But the matter is fundamental—and topical, given the state of many registers—as a result of the problems that have arisen in different places, either because people are not on the register who ought to be or because there are people on it who ought not to be. For example, students in halls of residence are, in some places, put on the electoral register at their term-time address. That is done very efficiently, and organised between the ERO and the appropriate colleges. In other places, it is left to chance. I have been given an example from Reading, where two town-centre wards have each lost 1,000 electors—students—since the general election. That is simply because the ERO has not been chasing those institutions and ensuring that the students are on the register. People do not have a culture of accuracy. There is a culture of following the rules and regulations.