I agree with the noble Baroness, but I am not sure that it is specifically or solely related to this particular Bill. There are much broader issues on paths down which I will not go at this stage. I see it on a daily basis. I see it from where I came this afternoon to be in this Chamber.
There have been references to the question of personation and the quantities of that. The police have not pursued personation in some cases. I refer here to Richard Mawrey QC’s judgment in the petitions in relation to Tower Hamlets. He refers to a former Labour councillor, Mr Kabir Ahmed, and I quote from paragraph 326 in his report:
“Applying the statutory test of residence set out above, I am quite satisfied that 326a Bethnal Green Road was not such a ‘residence’ as would entitle Mr Ahmed to be registered to vote from that address”.
That is part of the judgment of an elections court. The police did not pursue it. I am not arguing that there are large numbers of cases, but there are far more cases than are being cited. The police, for a number of different reasons, do not pursue them.
Equally, as I cited in passing at Second Reading, the Electoral Commission makes it difficult to access electoral rolls. If you are going to be able to produce proof of false registration—that is, personation—you have to refer to past electoral rolls. However, the Electoral Commission has quite specifically said that EROs
“should not provide access to any register other than the current register”,
so that makes it very difficult indeed for people to prove personation.
4.15 pm
I intervened on the noble Baroness, Lady Chakrabarti, and when I did so, the noble Baroness, Lady Hayman, responded from the Dispatch Box; I noticed that the noble Lord, Lord Collins, did not reply. I have a feeling that the noble Lord, Lord Collins, knows more than he will admit. The noble Lord has referred on previous occasions to his former role as general secretary of the Labour Party.