Electoral Administration Bill

I am grateful for everything that the Minister has said, especially her first confirmation, which will be quite a surprise to some electoral registration officers—not the best ones, obviously—but never mind. On her second point, there is a difference of opinion and I think that the Government have probably not got the balance right. I accept that to do what I am suggesting would require a lot more resources, which may or may not be made available. I return to my point about complacency. We have all been incredibly complacent about the electoral register for too long because, by and large, it has worked okay. When we have found people who should not be on the register, they have just been individuals, and when we have found people who wanted to be on it, we have been able to put them on it. The problem has been at the margins. However, there are now places where the register is without any doubt in severe crisis. Political parties must pay more attention to the issue again. At local level, political parties started up as local registration associations when the franchise was being extended during the 19th century and a lot of new people were entitled to be on the register. Local associations were set up to get those people on the register—or at least those who the parties thought would vote for them, as opposed to the cads and bounders voting for the other lot. That was the original purpose of political parties. Research that some of my friends are doing in places such as Hampstead and Reading shows that all political parties need to devote far more energy and attention to ensuring that the electoral register is accurate. That is in all their interests and the interests of everybody else. Once again, although we are talking about the administrative side, to some extent the answer to these problems lies with political parties, not with administrators. Having said that, I beg leave to withdraw the amendment. Amendment, by leave, withdrawn. Clause 9, as amended, agreed to.