Electoral Administration Bill

My noble friend is very welcome to bring forward further amendments on this. The issue that he raises is absolutely right, in the sense that—and we looked at this—we do not want to be knocking on a door more than once if we do not need to knock on a door more than once because we have the information. The amendment of the noble Lord, Lord Norton of Louth, deals with that by making it clear. The point that my noble friend is worrying about is captured, I think he will find—and I am happy to discuss it outside—by the other aspects of the clause dealing with things that people have to do. There is no question—and I have checked this very carefully, as my noble friend would expect—that this amendment would in any way enable people to say, ““I’m not going to bother in that case, because this lets me off the hook””. It is quite the opposite. The amendment seeks to clarify—unless the noble Lord disagrees with me, as it is his amendment that I am now defending—that where you have made contact and dealt with the matter, you do not have to go back. That is a much better use of resources, as everyone will agree, and that is what in law the amendment would do. I hope that my noble friend will accept—given that I checked very carefully, as he would expect—that that would be the effect of the amendment.