Electoral Administration Bill

moved Amendment No. 115:"Page 52, line 32, leave out paragraph (b)." The noble Baroness said: This cluster of amendments ties in with our debates on the duties of the electoral registration officers and on the CORE scheme. I apologise for returning to them at this late stage but this is the only place in the Bill to do so. Amendment No. 115 would leave out Clause 42(4)(b). At present, that part of the Bill provides for regulations which would enable anybody to pay to get access to any part of the register,"““the supply of a document or part””." Amendment No. 116 would back that up by ensuring that no part of the register could be sold for commercial gain. The thinking behind that is that political parties and certain approved organisations should be allowed access to the electoral register, but the Bill as it stands is probably far broader than the Government intended. It would be a serious infringement on the integrity of the keeper of the register if it were to be supported by the financial gains of selling off the personal details of those who wished to exercise their right to vote. The DVLA’s sale of personal details has been widely regarded as being of outrage and adds to my sense of unease. Amendment No. 117 would ensure that if regulations of that nature were to be made, the Secretary of State will have a statutory obligation to ““have regard to”” the recommendations of the Electoral Commission in place of the rather meagre provision that the Secretary of State must merely consult the commission. We live in an age where privacy is less and less our own—where centralised records can trace each one of our movements. It is our responsibility to ensure that appropriate safeguards exist to keep in check the incremental encroachment of our individual right to privacy, and that registering to vote does not mean that we are also consenting to the commercial sale of our personal details. I beg to move.