Political Parties and Elections Bill

That is a very generous offer, which we shall have to consider. I must move on. In any event, the Government have already announced the timetable leading to the implementation of individual registration, which will be supported by measures to maximise and maintain registration rates. The noble Lords, Lord Campbell-Savours and Lord Greaves, agree that there is a degree of voter fraud. There may not be as much as they think there is, or there may be more than they think there is, but the fact that it exists is the reason why we want to take our time to ensure that the system that we set up not only gets rid of the fraud but also keeps up the number of people on the register, as we must. Our timetable allows us to proceed with care and caution and get the right systems in place. I will say more about that in a moment. Amendment 132AA would require electors to produce evidence of their identity in order to be issued with a ballot paper in polling stations at an election. The purpose is to strengthen the security of the voting process at polling stations. Of course, everyone takes the integrity of the electoral process seriously. Voting at polling stations has traditionally been conducted without the need for any personal identification to be produced. Of course, it is an offence to attempt to vote in place of another, and staff at polling stations are given training and guidance on how to spot people who are attempting to cast votes falsely. The report published recently by the Association of Chief Police Officers and the Electoral Commission found that the May 2008 elections were, ""free from major incidents of electoral fraud"." It is consistent with earlier findings that the scale and volume of allegations of fraud have been decreasing. The police recorded 103 cases of electoral malpractice at the 2008 elections. Of these, 13 related to impersonation and in six of these cases no further action was taken. All this must be seen in the context of the 16 million votes which were cast at the May 2008 elections. Any proposal to require voters in polling stations in Great Britain to produce identification would need careful consideration. The amendment provides for the Secretary of State to designate, by order, documents that may be produced as evidence of identity. However, we would wish to carefully consider the practical implications of the proposal and the barriers that it might present for voting at elections, particularly as the requirement to produce evidence of identity would be a significant change to the electoral system. In addition, the amendment does not include any provision for checks to be done on the ID produced or for the details on the ID to be validated against another source. Again, that could undermine the effectiveness of the scheme. We understand that the Electoral Commission has indicated that it does not favour the use of ID by voters in polling stations at this time, so we have no plans to require electors in polling stations to require identification. However, this is an issue we will wish to consider in the context of our plans in relation to the electoral registration process, and we will look at it further once an overarching structure for individual registration is in place. We keep the matter under review and explore the options for ensuring that votes in polling stations are cast safely and securely. Liberal Democrat Amendment 125CA provides the Electoral Commission with discretion to make an assessment before 2014 of whether the registration objectives would be helped or hindered by a move towards the compulsory collection of personal identifiers. In tandem, it also provides the Commission with the ability to make a recommendation before that date on whether the provision of identifiers should be made compulsory. This is in contrast to the Government’s proposal, which requires the Electoral Commission to make such an assessment only in its 2014 report and to make a clear recommendation on whether or not to proceed to compulsory provision of identifiers to the Secretary of State. Of course, there are noble Lords who would like us to move more quickly towards a system of individual registration, and it may be worth saying a word or two about why we have chosen the timetable that we have and put it before Parliament. A phased approach is the only way to ensure that what I have described as a radical change is made effectively. It cannot be rushed. Our specific timetable delivers on this phased approach. It has been developed carefully, with due regard to the magnitude of the change and to the risks involved, some of which were set out by my noble friend Lord Campbell-Savours. It is a long time since last Wednesday evening, when we first set out on this group, but it is worth reminding noble Lords of why we are taking this course. There is concern about the timetable for the shift, which we propose should not happen before 2015 at the earliest. Given the importance of safeguarding the electoral system against fraud and the vital role that individual registration can play in achieving that, it is understandable that noble Lords would be anxious to make progress soon. However, a significant amount of work needs to be undertaken to ensure that the system is fully equipped to meet the challenges of the shift. We know from the experience in Northern Ireland, which did not start as well as it might—although I would argue that it has improved a lot—that there is a real risk that numbers registered could decrease as a result of the move. Under individual registration, many people will for the first time be responsible for their own registration; for all individuals, there will be a new requirement to provide additional personal information when registering. We have to ensure that the electorate has sufficient time to acclimatise to the new requirements. The other advantage of a phased approach will be that it enables us carefully to monitor progress at each stage, including using the commission’s annual progress report—there is to be one from the commission each year from 2011—better to ensure that registration rates can be maintained during the change. That will allow us to develop and test new measures to drive up registration rates, working closely with registration officers and the commission to determine what works best. Part of this is to increase registration at all times, as well as to move to individual identifiers. We will expect electoral registration officers and the system to work all the time towards increasing the number of people registered. That has been happening over the past few years.