Electoral Registration and Administration Bill

Debate between Baroness Clark of Kilwinning and Geoffrey Clifton-Brown

Wednesday 27th June 2012 Commons Chamber

[Geoffrey Clifton-Brown (The Cotswolds) (Con)]

I beg to move, That the clause be read a Second time.

[The Temporary Chair (Katy Clark)]

With this it will be convenient to discuss new clause 5—Explicit right of British citizens to register to vote and to participate in elections—

‘(1) The Representation of the People Act 1983 is amended as follows—

(2) Insert “a British citizen,”

(a) in section 1 (parliamentary electors), in subsection (1)(c), after “either”,

(b) in section 2 (local government electors), in subsection (1)(C), after “is”,

(c) in section 4 (entitlement to be registered as parliamentary or local government elector), in subsection (1)(c), after “either”,

(d) in section 4, subsection (3)(c), after “is”, and

(e) in section 7B, subsection (3)(e), after “is”, in the first place it occurs.’.

British citizens are currently enfranchised in statute as Commonwealth citizens, not British citizens. This amendment is to introduce a statutory entitlement for British citizens to be enfranchised as British citizens.

[Geoffrey Clifton-Brown]

At present, under sections 1 and 3 of the Representation of the People Act 1989, as amended by section 141 of the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000, British citizens can qualify as overseas voters only if they have been resident in the UK in the previous 15 years. The new clause would remove this qualifying period altogether, so that all British citizens could qualify as overseas voters, regardless of when they were last resident in the UK.

According to the Institute for Public Policy Research, 5.6 million British citizens currently live abroad. The shocking truth is that although, as of last December, about 4.4 million of them were of voting age, only 23,388 were registered for an overseas vote, according to the Office for National Statistics’ electoral statistics. Out of 4.4 million potential overseas voters, only 23,000-odd are actually registered! Half the problem is the difficulties of the registration process, which I brought before the House during the clause 1 stand part debate on 18 June, but the other half of the problem is the cut-off limit or qualifying period.