I am very grateful for that, which is a bit stronger. I will press on.
I was interested in what the Minister said about Amendment No. 73, and I look forward to seeing what amendments she might bring forward on the issue. The amendment relates to the legal question. At the moment, if you go to the town hall and inspect those things that you are allowed to inspect, such as the marked register, you are just going as an ordinary person. It might be that, in relation to something as sensitive as identifiers, those people who had the right to see them, under the limited circumstances of a postal vote count or even a normal election count if questions were raised, would have that right—which does not apply to everyone concerned but would apply perhaps to candidates and agents—only as part of pursuing an inquiry into an election that they thought had been rigged. One way forward might be to look at giving those people those rights, perhaps under some terms of confidentiality such as exist if you go to a count. We need to think about this carefully, so that there is a way through that allows people to investigate potentially fraudulent elections but does not just leave it open to all and sundry to look at these things, which would breach the whole idea of the confidentiality of the identifiers.
I was very happy with the answer on Amendments Nos. 71 and 69. On Amendment No. 61, I was not sure whether the Minister was saying that this would all be determined in the way that the pilots were carried out, or whether she was suggesting that she might be looking at some changes to the Bill. I wonder whether she could answer that.
Electoral Administration Bill
Proceeding contribution from
Lord Greaves
(Liberal Democrat)
in the House of Lords on Tuesday, 21 March 2006.
It occurred during Debate on bills
and
Committee proceeding on Electoral Administration Bill.
About this proceeding contribution
Reference
680 c81-2GC Session
2005-06Chamber / Committee
House of Lords Grand CommitteeSubjects
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