Electoral Administration Bill

I should perhaps say—I am sure noble Lords will agree—that I stand by the principle that electoral registration officers want to do a good job. I believe that they are very keen to ensure that they have people registered; that they encourage people to vote and make it easy and so on. I am sure noble Lords accept that as a principle, so that is our starting point. Clause 64 provides new performance standards, which include work such as promoting participation. As an encouragement—it is a naming and shaming encouragement—to undertake promotional activities, which will be evaluated by the Electoral Commission, we will be able to require information about what steps have been taken as a part of the process. We will be providing funding within that, about which I shall say a little more in a minute, but we start from the principle that that is an appropriate approach to take based on the Electoral Commission’s recommendation. It did not recommend that we made this a duty. Amendment No. 120, in the name of the noble Lord, Lord Norton, and Amendment No. 120A, in the name of the noble Lord, Lord Hanningfield, seek to compel electoral officers to carry out activities designed to encourage participation. As I have indicated, we have left this as a discretionary power because, in practice, it is not always appropriate for electoral officers to carry out particular activities. Some local authorities with which noble Lords are familiar have a very high rate of registration year on year; but there is diversity between different areas, and that is what we have sought to address within the clause. We think that conferring the discretion, with linked performance standards, is the best position we can possibly take. In other words, it strikes the right balance. Imposing a standard or reasonableness is not appropriate in this clause because we think electoral officers should have the discretion to take the actions they feel are necessary to encourage participation within their own area. As I have indicated, the performance standards should not be a barrier to their discretion where promotion is concerned. They already have to take account of the Electoral Commission guidance published under the clause, and we want to ensure that we retain their autonomy while enabling them to be directed by the Electoral Commission at an appropriate level. Starting from the principle that they are there to do the job they want to do, recognising that performance standards give us some leverage, and recognising their need to think about their own area, which in some cases will be different from another, we think we have got that right. The noble Lord, Lord Norton, tabled Amendment No. 121. We have indicated that we have a small fund of about £3,000 per local authority, which is available to them. To take on the principle that we would just reimburse whatever they did would not be acceptable, because we need to ensure that they are doing what is absolutely necessary. We cannot accept the amendment as it stands, but we accept the principle that funds need to be available, and I have indicated that they would.