Political Parties and Elections Bill

I am distressed to say that I cannot accept a word of what my noble friend said. He knows how much I disagree with him on this. I know we have spent some time talking about fraud and I know that this is part of the issue, but it is only part. We should concentrate more on one of the other reasons why this Bill is important. Perhaps I may quote from day two of Report stage on the Political Parties and Elections Bill in the House of Commons when the Minister, Mr Wills, introduced this. He said: ""In Public Bill Committee, we discussed—and, it is fair to say, we all agreed—that democracy is undermined when significant numbers of people are not able to participate in elections because they are not registered to do so. Registration is the source from which democratic participation flows. Those who are not registered are denied that participation, so we must all be concerned that it has been estimated that more than 3 million eligible people are not able to vote in this country because they are not registered".—[Official Report, Commons, 2/3/09; col. 653.]" To me, that is a crucial part of why it is necessary to have individual registration. To compare that with binge drinkers is completely unacceptable. Individual registration—I declare an interest as chair of the HS Chapman Society—has been supported by the society for some years now, as it has been supported by the Electoral Commission since 2003. It is also fair to say that it was backed by the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly, by the Committee on Standards in Public Life and by the Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust. This has not just appeared out of the blue; people have given a great deal of consideration to it. I go back to the HS Chapman Society, which is made up of all the political parties, ex-apparatchiks like myself, party lawyers, the Electoral Commission and electoral registration officers. I make that point on purpose because they have supported the concept of individual registration in the HS Chapman Society and they are the officers of the electoral registration association. That is very important. The whole question of registration has been covered on television in the past few weeks. The adverts have been very effective at pointing out that if you do not register you do not have a vote; they emphasise the importance of registration. When the Minister introduced the debate at our last sitting, he emphasised that this was a major change to our electoral process, and that, of course, is absolutely right. What, to me, is fundamental about this, and why I believe that it can make a difference in terms of fraud, is that it removes intermediaries from the process and provides a direct contact between the individual and the state, and no one in between can affect what people are attempting to do. I am sure that individual registration will reduce the level of fraud. I do not say it will eliminate it, because I do not know that you can ever eliminate fraud. There are other ways of committing fraud, as we have heard today, such as through postal voting, as some people believe. In the judgments on the cases in Birmingham and Slough, Richard Mawrey QC, advocated the case for individual registration. There were other factors, of course, but he came out very strongly in favour of individual registration. I am sure we all agree that it is terribly important that the change receives proper, careful preparation—I shall come to the timing in a moment—because the integrity of our registers is absolutely crucial, as is the authenticity of the applications. I support the concept of the three identifiers—the signature, the date of birth and the national insurance number. However, I say to my noble friend the Minister that we have to make sure that the EROs have the resources to be able to do the job effectively. I strongly urge that because, after the 2006 registration, money was given to local authorities to help the EROs produce better registers. I met with the Minister who was then responsible, Harriet Harman, to discuss this, and I said that just putting the money in would not work. What actually happened to the money is that a lot of it went into local government general funds. Any money allocated for this purpose must be ring-fenced so that how it is to be spent is clearly identified. Otherwise, the EROs will not be able to do the job properly. One matter that the EROs will have to consider is the state of the cross-referencing with data information. Looking at the amendment, I have some sympathy with the Information Commissioner because, as I said at Second Reading, I hoped that that data, which I fully support in principle, would be in absolute conformity with the Data Protection Act so that there could be no challenge afterwards about where the information came from. I hope something will be done to ensure that that is the case. My noble friend referred to the low level of registration. The reason for this, basically, is because the job is not being done properly. Obviously there are problems in some areas—I appreciate that—but, in the main, it is because the electoral resources have not been there and partly because either the 2000 Act or the 2006 Act reduced what electoral registration officers had to do. At one time, it was clear that they had to not only try to get the information by post but to go door to door. I understand that in some areas that might be difficult and that it means that sometimes they have to go in twos because the areas are not sympathetic, but that is something that can be countered. That level of contact must be made. What will also be important is the Electoral Commission’s review of what is actually happening and what work is being done by electoral registration officers so that we can identify the really bad cases of electoral registration. They relate to levels of multi-occupancy, people with literacy problems and harder-to-reach groups. There is no doubt that extra resources and effort must be put into those areas to make sure that everybody gets the right to register. We must not forget that this is a right. It is not something that they should do: it is a right to be on the electoral register. I so disagree with my noble friend that you can pick out some areas and not others. He said that people have identified that it might be racist to do this. It is not racist, but it is discriminatory. Therefore, I have some serious questions about being able to split things up in that way.