Scottish Parliament (Elections etc.) (Amendment) Order 2009

I should first declare an interest as a Member of the Scottish Parliament. Currently, I am the only Member of the Scottish Parliament in the House of Lords, although we have some distinguished former MSPs, including the former Presiding Officer of the Scottish Parliament, the noble Lord, Lord Steel, who carried out that job with great distinction. I shall pursue the line of argument that he pursued earlier, so we have today not only our service in the Scottish Parliament in common but our arguments. The Scottish Parliament, conveniently for me if not for our Whip and our Minister, is currently in recess, so I am able to be here on a Wednesday afternoon, when the Scottish Parliament normally meets. I am afraid that during the time that it does meet, I go up to Edinburgh for the plenary sessions and the committee on which I serve. I am therefore pleased to be able to participate in this debate. I agree with the noble Lord, Lord Steel, on two points. The separate ballot paper created tremendous problems. I know from participating and from the count the problems that it created. There was huge confusion when people got the two papers mixed up and it was not immediately clear even to seasoned campaigners and politicians what to do. I also agree about the timetable for postal votes. Again I declare an interest, having registered for a postal vote which I hope I will receive for the next election. The tight timetable created problems for returning officers, so that will be an improvement as well. My only point of disagreement with the noble Lord, Lord Steel, is that I still have some doubts about transferring to the Scottish Parliament all responsibilities for elections to the Scottish Parliament.