Local Authorities (Conduct of Referendums) (England) Regulations 2007

I am grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Evans, for introducing the regulations, and I am particularly grateful for the assurance that there will be a referendum later this year. For one brief moment, until I remembered that this relates purely to local government referendums, I thought that this might be the Government meeting their manifesto commitment to give us a referendum on the new EU constitution, but sadly I understand that it is merely to hold a referendum in Darlington some time later this year. I have a number of questions that arise from the regulations. I should like to start by referring to the Explanatory Memorandum, for which I am grateful to the noble Lord for providing because it is very helpful. My first question relates to the comments in the Explanatory Memorandum at paragraph 7.3 on postal ballots: "““It is worth noting that the option of a referendum being conducted by means of an all-postal ballot has been removed””." I would like to hear more generally about the Government’s views on all-postal ballots for the future and whether they think that postal ballots as a whole have been a success. The Minister referred to the disasters in the Birmingham City Council elections, a case which the judge who tried it referred to as being one that would have ““disgraced a banana republic””. There was a great deal of electoral fraud as a result of the postal ballot. To remove the possibility of having an all-postal ballot for such referendums is probably a step forward. I was therefore a bit alarmed when the noble Lord said in his opening remarks that the Government would come back to all-postal ballots when there are slightly more secure means of checking people’s identities. I should like to hear a little more on that, and to be absolutely sure that we will not see all-postal ballots or any further encouragement of all-postal ballots until we are convinced that the system is secure. In passing, I shall make one other comment on postal ballots, which no doubt the noble Lord will be able to answer on behalf of his department. At the moment, most local authorities are strongly encouraging us to move over to all-postal ballots. I certainly have a postal ballot for my vote in London because it normally tends to be more convenient. But I notice that, whenever one gets a chance to renew one’s entry on the electoral form, to go back from a postal ballot to voting in the proper manner is rather difficult. Will the Government consider making it easier to revert to the more traditional means of voting rather than leaving us on postal ballots, about which some of us have increasing doubts? Just before I leave postal ballots, I should say that the Minister referred in his Explanatory Memorandum to, "““urgent policy discussions with stakeholders””." He used the word ““stakeholders”” again in his opening remarks. I would be interested to know who the stakeholders are. I would rather have hoped that an educated chap like the Minister, a former publisher, would try not to use words like ““stakeholder””, which are fairly meaningless. I am sure that he could come up with something better. If he could tell us who the stakeholders are with whom they consult, we would be grateful. I turn to the question of expenses. I am grateful to the Minister for explaining just how they were going to increase in line with inflation. Will he comment on how that compares with the expenses in general elections and in local elections? I imagine that they are broadly similar in some manner to the amount people have to spend in local elections, but no doubt he can assist me on that. On the question of publicity and other information in connection with referendums, I understand that the proper officer of the local authority has only in to publish the fact that there is going to be a referendum in one newspaper circulating in the local authority’s area; it does not even say the principal newspaper, or the newspaper with the greatest coverage. What measures are there to ensure that he goes to the right paper and makes sure that there is proper coverage, rather than having to publish in just one newspaper that circulates to some extent in that area? We would not want to be in a position where the officers of an authority could discriminate against certain papers purely because they did not like those papers’ political bent and not offer them the advertising when dealing with such matters. No doubt the Minister will be able to assist me on that. Moving on, I dealt with referendum expenses in terms of the increase in the amount that people will be able to spend. Can the Minister say anything about how the Government deal with exactly who is covered by the expenses? What about non-affiliated supporters of a particular group, the ““no”” faction or the ““yes”” faction, in any referendum? How will the Government ensure that those groups are covered? I have been through quite a lot of the rest of the statutory instrument, and I am grateful for it. It makes a lot of things much clearer. I particularly commend Schedule 3, which sets out the Local Government Act referendum rules. Those are clear, and are easily understood by anyone who is concerned by them. Again, I would be grateful for an assurance that they broadly follow similar guidance to that offered for elections to local government, city councils, county councils or whatever, or indeed for general elections. The I trust that the Minister will be able to give me some answers to those brief questions, but if not, I am sure that he will be able to write to me.