Electoral Administration Bill

This is an very interesting debate, as ever. As the noble Baroness will recall, the principle of CORE will be to replicate the current position nationally. Only those organisations which are entitled will have access—political parties, the Electoral Commission and so on. Those people who have opted out will still be opted out. So it will be exactly the same basis as the current position. I struggled with this amendment. I think that the noble Lord, Lord Norton, was saying that this is something that is done as a civic duty: you put your name on the electoral register. It has its uses because it may, as we discussed in terms of service voters, enable people more easily to deal with obtaining credit and so on. But the idea that we sell it on does not fit with that civic duty, with which I have sympathy. As the noble Lord also indicated, and the noble Lord, Lord Goodhart, said, we made the change to have the opportunity to opt out, whereas for a long time previously it was an open and public document. Because I am responsible for issues like data protection, I am also very conscious of changes. There are certainly increasing numbers of organisations which use opting in rather than opting out. I think that at Second Reading, the noble Lord said that the difficulty for people is that if they do not opt out, suddenly their details are everywhere and could be bought by anyone. Therefore, the question is whether opting in means that people have made a positive choice that they would like their details sent out. I would need to consult with colleagues across government on whether we should do that. I have no doubt that there would be implications for business and also for charities. Charities rely heavily on being able to send out documentation, particularly at times when, for example, an international crisis is occurring, and being able to reach as many people as possible in their fund-raising. I am not sure whether I sense from the Committee the strength of feeling one way or the other on that. My noble friend is going to help me here—or not.