Political Parties and Elections Bill

Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker, and of course you are right, as always. [Interruption.] I know that the hon. Members for Cambridge (David Howarth) and for Cheltenham (Martin Horwood) are desperate to make the points that they want to make on what they choose to hear. However, if they had listened carefully when I introduced new clauses 21 and 22, they would know that I said that if the House is to make a proper assessment of the new clauses, it has to understand the context in which we are introducing them. I have, I hope, been setting out that context for quite a long time, and I have given way many times to the hon. Gentlemen. I have been trying to point out to them that if we are to move towards individual registration, which I think most people in the House agree is a most desirable objective, we must improve the electoral registration system. I am trying to explain that. That has nothing to do with the groupings, and when hon. Members see Hansard, they will see that I pointed that out right at the start of my remarks. I will, if I may, repeat what the Electoral Commission said, because they are important words that the House needs to hear to reach a judgment. It said that individual registration""would be a major change to the electoral registration system in Great Britain. There will need to be detailed planning and identification of key milestones to provide the basis for moving towards implementation of individual electoral registration over a number of years, including the delivery of public awareness campaigns during any transition to a new system. There will also need to be a real effort to make sure Electoral Registration Officers throughout Great Britain have the right tools to ensure all those who are entitled to be registered to vote are helped to do so."" I stress""the right tools to ensure all those who are entitled";" that is precisely what we are discussing. We agree with the Electoral Commission's analysis, and I have already outlined the steps that we have taken, and are taking, to enhance the reach of the register. We can have a register that is both comprehensive and accurate, but only if we frame the process in a way that prepares the public for the transition to a new form of registration and do all that is in our power to ensure that registration rates do not fall. If we fail to do that, we damage the legitimacy of the electoral process and our democracy. The Government will propose amendments during the House of Lords stages of the Bill to put in place a statutory timetable for the introduction of individual registration, begin the roll-out of measures to prepare both the public and the electoral system for that change, and put in place a series of tests, which are to be independently assessed by the Electoral Commission, that will ensure that the shift is made only when the system is ready for it. We will legislate to allow local authority electoral registration officers to collect personal identifiers—date of birth, signature and national insurance number—from electors. That will take place alongside the existing process of household registration. Provision of the identifiers would be voluntary. That process, which we are calling permissive individual registration, would begin during the autumn 2010 annual canvass.