Political Parties and Elections Bill

My Lords, in Committee my noble friend Lord Henley and I tabled an amendment that was similar in effect because we were persuaded by the argument put forward. The principle was very clear and has been ably articulated by my noble friend Lord Norton of Louth. It covered two pieces of very persuasive evidence. The first was the intervention of the Information Commissioner, Richard Thomas, and Mark Walport, director of the medical charity the Wellcome Trust, who, in their report published in July, said: ""The edited register is available for sale to anyone for any purpose. Its main clients are direct marketing companies and companies compiling directories"." The point of this amendment is to make it clear that one must opt into the edited register and thus make it harder to sell information on to third parties. In addition, the Local Government Association carried out a survey of electoral registration officers, 98 per cent of whom wanted a change in the law to abolish the edited register that councils have to sell to direct marketing companies, and 88 per cent of electoral registration officers believed that the current system deters people from voting. The survey also found that councils raise on average only a mere £1,900 from this source. Putting together all of those arguments that were so eloquently persuasive, I rose in Grand Committee and asked whether this was not an opportunity for a change. I should have realised that although taking on various groups is perhaps necessary in the course of public life, taking on direct marketing companies is a recipe for being inundated with e-mails, paper and representations. They certainly lived up to the reputation of their direct-marketing capabilities by making representations in between the Grand Committee and now. I totally support the principal point of the more reasoned amendment put forward by my noble friend Lord Norton of Louth which delays implementation of the abolition. Direct mailing companies need to be aware and acknowledge that there is grave discomfort at the information being passed on for marketing purposes. They need to start thinking in the medium term about finding other sources from which to garner this information. However, we keep coming back to timing, which is everything. At present, the representations that we have received from the organisations that would be most affected by this measure have led us to a deeper concern about the impact on jobs and businesses in this country. At times of recession, when many people are losing their homes and jobs, and many businesses are closing for many reasons, we should take almost a hippocratic oath, which is, "First, do no harm". My hesitation is not about the principle of the amendment but that at a practical level we may actually harm an important part of the economy. Therefore, while we very much support the principle of the amendment and urge the industry to take notice of the remarks made in this House, and to look for alternatives, we would not be able to offer support from the Front Bench to my noble friend.