Electoral Administration Bill

I had not intended to speak until I heard the comments of the noble Lord, Lord Campbell-Savours. He persuades me that the opposite of what he is saying is desirable. I am inclined to ask him whether his date of birth changes, which is rather important in this context. He argues that it is not an ideal situation, which is correct, but I believe that it is probably an improvement on the present one. As regards his point about the measure being an incumbrance, I am not sure that it is. People have to sign for all sorts of things as a matter of course. The noble Lord has already proved that by all the forms he has photocopied. He is signing things all over the place. So, it is hardly an incumbrance; we do it as a matter of course. I believe that some people welcome the measure. When all-postal voting was mooted I was struck by the fact that a lot of people objected to it on the ground that they wanted physically to go to a polling station. It was a civic responsibility. That is a rather important point in this context. The noble Lord is right—people will not be able to check all the signatures but the important thing is the deterrent effect of the public knowing that there is the possibility of their being checked. On those grounds, it is a valuable exercise. They will be checked as is necessary, not necessarily as a matter of course. This measure is a step forward. There is no ideal situation. If we moved to ID cards, eventually people would be able to get round the security attached to them. Therefore, I believe that the measure constitutes an improvement on the present situation.