Political Parties and Elections Bill

My Lords, I am moving these amendments today as they are necessary to the successful implementation of the co-ordinated online record of electors, or CORE, scheme. The amendments are essential to ensure that there is authority to create a new non-departmental public body to fulfil the role of the CORE keeper. Until November 2008 it was intended that the Electoral Commission would fulfil this role, and the Electoral Administration Act 2006 makes provision for that. Following the recommendations from the Committee on Standards in Public Life, however, the commission is seeking to refocus its functions and concentrate on enhancing its regulatory role. The Government agree with the commission that this is the right thing to do. Furthermore, the Government have now brought forward our proposals for the introduction of a scheme of individual registration. It is quite likely that we will require a central point through which electors’ personal identifiers, such as national insurance numbers, may be validated with the relevant authority, and CORE may provide that service. Such a role does not currently fit with the Electoral Commission’s redefined regulatory role, but it is important that the public body taking on this role is demonstrably independent from government. In bringing these amendments forward, therefore, we will ensure that the CORE scheme can be delivered without delay, and that the necessary infrastructure can be developed to facilitate the introduction of individual registration. The new clause that is brought in by Amendment 85 inserts new Section 3A into the 2006 Act to enable the Secretary of State, by order, to establish a new non-departmental public body in the form of a corporation sole with a view to its being designated by a CORE scheme as the CORE keeper. This type of body is considered appropriate for three reasons. First, it would comprise a single office-holder, meaning that there is an identifiable decision-maker for accountability purposes. This is regarded as important because the CORE keeper’s functions under the 2006 Act will include the receiving and processing of electoral registration information from EROs. Secondly, it would achieve the right balance between daily operational independence and accountability to Parliament via the Secretary of State, who would appoint the office-holder. Finally, a single identifiable decision-maker is similar in concept to an electoral registration officer, and is therefore a model that is established and well understood within the electoral administration field. Taking a power to create the corporation sole in secondary legislation is designed to provide an appropriate degree of flexibility so that the precise detail of the structure and operation of the body, and the timing of its creation, can be developed consistently with the CORE scheme order. The amendment provides for necessary matters of detail concerning the creation of the corporation sole to be addressed in the order, and makes provision for a number of matters that would be consequential on the establishment of the corporation sole. In particular, it amends Section 1(10) of the 2006 Act expressly to provide that a person designated as the CORE keeper under the CORE scheme must be a corporation sole established under the new power, or some other public authority. This preserves the ability for another public authority to take on the role of CORE keeper if that is considered appropriate in the future. It also provides for an order establishing the new corporation sole to be subject to the affirmative resolution procedure and provides that, before the order can be made, the Electoral Commission and the Information Commissioner must be consulted. These requirements are designed to ensure that the order will be subject to a high degree of scrutiny. Moving on to the other amendments, Amendment 86 is intended to provide additional protections around access to the electoral register from the CORE keeper. The effect of current provisions in the 2006 Act is that the regulations governing the supply of the electoral register by EROs will also apply to the CORE keeper, subject to any modifications that the Secretary of State considers appropriate. This means that bodies entitled to receive copies of the electoral registers and related information from EROs will be entitled to receive the same information from the CORE keeper, subject to the same restrictions on access and use. This does not expand the range of bodies with access to the registers, but the creation of the CORE scheme would enable the registers to be accessed from a single source on a national scale. In light of this, specific arrangements may be required where information is supplied by the CORE keeper to ensure that the provision of data is appropriate. Accordingly, Amendment 86 supplements the Secretary of State’s existing power to modify the application of the regulations by enabling additional or different conditions to be imposed on the supply of material by the CORE keeper. Amendment 87 relates to Section 3 of the Juries Act 1974, which currently requires EROs to supply copies of the register for the purpose of jury summoning. Once the CORE system is operational, it may be more efficient and convenient for the registers to be supplied on a national scale by the CORE keeper, rather than by each individual ERO. Accordingly, this amendment takes a power to amend Section 3 of the Juries Act to provide for this, but it would not allow anyone who is not already entitled to access the register from EROs to do so from the CORE keeper. Finally, Amendment 88 extends the Secretary of State’s existing powers in relation to the CORE scheme order so that the order can authorise information sharing between the CORE keeper and the Electoral Commission. As I have already detailed, the original intention was for the Electoral Commission to be the CORE keeper. However, now that this is not to be the case, it is important that the CORE keeper is able to furnish the commission with information that is relevant to its functions. It is envisaged that the power may be exercised to enable the CORE keeper to provide the Electoral Commission with statistical reports, for example, regarding registration patterns or the number of notifications made by the CORE keeper to EROs about circumstances that may be indicative of absent voter fraud or other improprieties. The power may also be used to enable the CORE keeper to inform the commission where an ERO has failed to report back to the CORE keeper on steps taken to investigate potential instances of fraud or other improprieties, as may be required in the CORE scheme order. I beg to move. Amendment 85 agreed.