Electoral Administration Bill

moved Amendment No. 43:"Page 6, line 22, leave out ““more than one occasion”” and insert ““one or more occasions””" The noble Lord said: I can be brief. Unlike the other amendments in this group, put forward by the noble Lord, Lord Greaves, mine is a drafting amendment, which is self-explanatory. Under subsection (2)(b) of the proposed new section, registration officers are empowered to make,"““on more than one occasion house-to-house inquiries””." That is ambiguous: it may be taken to deny the registration officer the power to make an inquiry on only one occasion. I appreciate that the Minister may argue that it is implicit that a registration officer may confine his or her inquiries to a single visit if that elicits the necessary information. But, in that case, I draw attention to subsection (2)(a), which empowers a registration officer to send,"““more than once to any address the form to be used for the canvass””." The relevant point is that the registration officer is already empowered under Section 9 of the 1983 Act to send out a form for the annual canvass. As far as I am aware, there is no equivalent power conferred by an existing provision to make a house-to-house inquiry. I appreciate that it can be argued that it would be perverse for a registration officer to have to make a second visit, having elicited the required information on a first visit, and that subsection (2)(b) should therefore be construed to empower a single visit. Therefore, it would be best to put that beyond doubt. The subsection should empower the registration officer to make house-to-house inquires on ““one or more occasions””. I beg to move.