Electoral Administration Bill

moved Amendment No. 92:"Page 17, line 30, after ““electors”” insert ““knowingly””" The noble Baroness said: This is a very small amendment to try to avert a larger problem. Both amendments are trying to protect the elector from being punished for making an innocent mistake. The Bill states:"““A person who for any purpose connected with the registration of electors provides to a registration officer any false information is guilty of an offence””." I appreciate that probably this would be a very long way down the road. If false information was given by an elector, leeway might be given, but just in case someone decided to interpret the Bill absolutely, it seems sensible to insert ““knowingly””. It would be possible to make a slip, quite unintentionally, in some part of an identifier and to register under two addresses without remembering that you had not removed the previous address. Potentially under these clauses you could be prosecuted for it. We want to divide the good from the bad and recognise that people genuinely make mistakes, whereas others do not and seek to oppose the course of proper polling. I beg to move.