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

I am most grateful to the noble Lord for his contribution to the discussion. Before I answer as many questions as I can asked by the noble Lord, Lord Henley, asked, perhaps I may say that I think this is the first time I have uttered the word ““stakeholder”” in either the Moses Room or the Chamber. I usually cross it out and put in something like ““interested parties””, which sounds awful but not as appalling as ““stakeholders””. I am afraid that it is a fashionable word which pops up all over the place. I was very sorry to disappoint the noble Lord about the proposed referendum. I absolutely understand why he had a greater ambition for it. I confirm that the authority mentioned is Darlington Borough Council, which will have a referendum in September of this year. The first substantive question asked by the noble Lord, Lord Henley, was: why can a referendum no longer be run as an all-postal ballot? The changes set out the rules for the conduct of referendums in full and remove the option of a referendum being conducted by means of an all-postal ballot. The law now requires the checking of postal voting statements before they go forward to the count. To conduct an all-postal referendum would mean collecting the signatures and dates of birth from every eligible elector in the authority in order to verify personal identifiers on postal voting statements. That is not possible in the time available to call a referendum and risks disfranchising electors. Personal identifiers are designed to strengthen the security of the postal voting system and to respond to concerns expressed that postal voting should be made more secure. The noble Lord asked whether it is possible to revert from all-postal to traditional voting. Each elector simply needs to contact his local authority to cancel his postal ballot. The noble Lord also asked about publication in newspapers. The requirement in the regulation is the minimum legal requirement and is identical to the provision in previous regulations. Local authority officials will exercise their discretion to decide how to advertise the referendum. It would be improper to deal with such matters for irrelevant reasons, and to do so would be unlawful. He asked who were the stakeholders—the interested parties—mentioned in my speech with whom they consult. The Local Elections Advisory Group was set up in the summer of 2005 to look at issues for implementing changes from the Electoral Administrations Act 2006, and electoral administrations with experience of running referendums. The noble Lord, Lord Henley, also asked whether expenses were covered for non-political groups. A campaign organiser does not need to represent a political party, just an outcome in the referendum. Finally, he asked whether referendum rules follow similar guidance in similar matters to those implemented in local authority elections. The referendum rules are on those that apply to the election of councillors, making those changes necessary to reflect the differences between elections and referendums—for example, the absence of candidates in the latter. It may be that I have not answered some of the noble Lord’s questions, but we will look at Hansard very carefully and he will receive a letter within the next few days. I commend the regulations. On Question, Motion agreed to.