Electoral Administration Bill

My understanding of statutory guidance and ““having regard to””—this is based on my education days, because we had a lot of it—was that, if challenged, you would have to demonstrate not only that you had read it, but why you had not taken it forward. I think it applies here because one would be setting out in the guidance things that might be done, some of which would not be applicable to a particular area. If you have complied, it is much more difficult to allow people the flexibility to say, ““In my area, with the particular population, I need to have regard to these issues and not to others””. It probably has more teeth than the noble Lord suggests.