EU Referendum: Voter Registration

Debate between Lord Bridges of Headley and Baroness Taylor of Bolton

Wednesday 8th June 2016 Lords Chamber

[Lord Bridges of Headley]

The noble Lord speaks with a lot of experience on these things and makes a good point. I agree wholeheartedly with the principle that reducing the number of duplicate applications would certainly ease the burden on citizens and electoral administrators. We are open to all options for reducing duplicate applications. That said, we must guard against any solution which results in whole swathes of data unnecessarily being held centrally.

[Baroness Taylor of Bolton (Lab)]

My Lords, will the Minister now relook at the problem of registration in terms of the boundary review? We have been told that many more people are now registered, yet the figures are the old figures. We know that many are still not registered. Surely, it is wrong to press ahead with the boundary review when registration has caused so many difficulties.

[Lord Bridges of Headley]

The Government’s position is as I set out a moment ago.