Electoral Administration Bill

moved Amendment No. 88A:"Page 15, line 43, at end insert ““and" (b)   the candidates and election agents in the elections that took place during the operation of the pilot order and their political parties if any.”” The noble Lord said: I can be fairly quick with this amendment. It refers to the section of the Bill that states that when there has been a pilot scheme, the local authority should be consulted by the Electoral Commission before the latter writes its report. I entirely agree with that. I just add in parenthesis that when we were talking about setting up CORE schemes, the consultation was all with the electoral registration officer. I proposed that local authorities should be included in that, but that did not meet with the Government’s favour. I think that in all these cases the electoral registration officer as a professional should be consulted and the local authority as a local authority should be consulted, to be consistent. However, the amendment suggests that election candidates and election agents should be consulted, together with political parties, if they are political candidates, which most are. I wage a running battle against people who describe all recipients of services and everybody who takes part in things nowadays as customers. That seems to me to be modern nonsense. However, in the case of elections, if the Government want to talk about customers—which new Labour does—candidates, election agents and political parties are the customers of the electoral process together, of course, with all the electors. They are the people who are directly involved. They have experience and expertise. They will take part in the process and will have a lot to say. It seems to me just common sense that, given the points of view of those people, many of whom have many years of experience of these matters—including some Members of the Committee, for example—they ought to be consulted. That is the purpose of the amendment. I beg to move.