Electoral Registration and Administration Bill

Baroness Hayter of Kentish Town Excerpts

Tuesday 24th July 2012 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Hayter of Kentish Town]

My Lords, this has been an informative debate with much commonality of approach, especially regarding the desire for a complete register. As my noble and learned friend Lord Falconer said, this side of the House supports in principle the move to individual electoral registration, and indeed we congratulate the Government on listening during their consultation and making some significant adjustments, as set out by my noble friend Lady Gould, especially to introduce a civil penalty, to remove the opt-out and to have a full canvass in 2014.

Individual registration recognises the increased emphasis on the rights of the individual and it reflects how we vote—as individuals, not as family blocks. As has been said, it was the previous Labour Government who legislated for this to deal with inaccuracy, but particularly the incompleteness, of the register. We want to capture those 6 million people who are effectively disenfranchised; nearly half of whom think that they are on the register; the figure is 25% in some areas, as the noble Lord, Lord Tyler, reminds us.

However, individual registration has only a part to play. The democratic deficit also arises from insufficient preparation in schools for participation in the political process, despite the very good example that the noble Lord gave us of, I think, Hounslow. Our press, which is forever decrying the role of democratic governance, does not help, and there is also the lack of action to ensure that under registered groups, be those private sector tenants, BME residents or the young, are motivated both to register and then to vote.

Added to this will be the new boundary rules, which will force changes to constituencies every election. Those rules are actually quite undemocratic because they will break the ongoing link between an elected Member and her or his constituents. Voting alone, which particularly those in the House who have been MPs will know, is not all there is about democracy—it is also about accountability. That means going back to those who elected you after a five-year Parliament for their verdict on your record. This is going to be denied to the proposed elected Members of your Lordships’ House, but will also lessen as a parliamentary seat’s make-up keeps changing to accommodate the coalition’s obsession with statistically numerical definitions of a constituency, quite trumping habits, travel, community, geography, history and place.

The ConservativeHome blog, which I recommend to everybody, told us last week the real reason for these new boundaries, which is quite different from producing identi-sized seats. As Tim Montgomerie, known I am sure to those sitting on the opposite Benches, blogged:

“One leading aide to the Party Chairman told me yesterday that the passage of the new boundaries was the most important single legislative change for the Conservative Party’s chances of winning the next election. CCHQ is pleased at the outcome of the boundary review and it has confirmed the general view that the party needs a 10.5% lead to win an outright majority on existing boundaries but a much more modest 7.6% on the new boundaries”.

So there we have it. It is nothing to do with a more equitable spread of the electorate but the search for an outright majority to dump the Lib Dems. No wonder they are thinking twice about voting for those new boundaries.

I digress. The issue before us today is about just one part of boosting the accountability and representativeness of elections, whether for police commissioners, to the Commons, to local authorities, to the European Parliament, to devolved Administrations and maybe even to this magnificent building. However, there are serious concerns that the Government must answer.

First, on methodology, why, as everyone has asked, is there no carryover for postal votes, which are largely used by some of our most disadvantaged groups who can no longer get out and about for the joy of a walk to the polling station? Interestingly, these electors are already individually registered rather than household registered, so they are a little ahead of the game. Postal votes should, as I think many noble Lords have said, be carried over to the register for the 2015 election; there is really no democratic case against that. The way in which the register is compiled will be crucial, and to be successful there must be sound strategic planning plus adequate ring-fenced funding. It cannot be allowed to fail because of Treasury miserliness.

Secondly, on timeliness, why are the Government so keen on speeding up individual electoral registration? No explanation was given throughout the passage of this Bill through the other place although, as the noble Lord, Lord Dobbs, said, that was a rather short period. This is the biggest change to the registration system since 1928 and therefore needs careful planning and implementation. We have spent years building up the register, and we should not jeopardise it for some quick-fix formula. I ask, as others have, whether the Government have a coherent implementation plan. I was somewhat taken aback by the Government publishing on 17 July, just as MPs who know about the intricacies of registration and its drawbacks were—again, to use the words of the noble Lord, Lord Dobbs—packing their buckets and spades for their week at the seaside. It does not sound a very good time to produce the so-called implementation plan. It is a bit weak and seems to provide more evidence about this ruinous timescale for proper scrutiny as well as implementation. This is very different from the step-by-step approach quoted by my noble friend Lord Griffiths of Burry Port.

There are risks in speeding up the timetable for what should be an invaluable democratic tool, but a tool which, if mishandled, could undermine trust in the voting system in a way that will rebound not only on the present Administration but on the whole system of elections, which will be bad for all of us.

The results of the data-matching pilots will not be known until this Bill becomes law, yet there is no built-in safeguard should the pilots demonstrate significant flaws in the chosen methodology. Given that the present register does not contain dates of birth, there must be questions about how well it will match with DWP information, especially for those with common surnames such as a Baker, a Collins, a Wills or a Dobbs who is even less imaginative in insisting in cloning his name within the same household.

Indeed, as the Minister will recall, in Grand Committee I questioned what would happen if the Electoral Commission’s and the Cabinet Office’s assessments of the pilots varied. Answer, I am afraid, came there none. The evaluation of those pilots may not even impact on the Government’s determination to move forward on an individual register to their predetermined timetable, no matter what their outcome. The previous Government proposed a gradual implementation along an agreed timetable; now it is hurried and done without consensus. No wonder people are worried.

Thirdly, there is the apparent downgrading of the monitoring role of the Electoral Commission. Surely the commission should have to certify that individual registration is functioning properly before anyone previously registered to vote loses that right. As the noble Lord, Lord Rennard, said, we must know that it is working before we use it as the basis for boundary changes or for the 2015 general election. Will the Minister share with us the risk register for this project? If he does a Department of Health and refuses, will he at least let the Electoral Commission have the risk register so that its work can take account of the likely pressure points and vulnerabilities of the scheme?

Fourthly, why does the Bill seek the power to abolish the annual canvass? This is essential. It is not a luxury that all eligible voters should be on the register. As the noble Lord, Lord Empey, said, the register decays with time. As a people, we continue to move, probably more rather than less. Families form and, sadly, break up; people’s employers change far more than those of our parents’ generation; people move abroad and back; and people change their name—even women. My generation of women’s-libbers assumed that none of us would ever take our husband’s surname, but strangely that has not been the case. An enormous number of changes are going on. We will seek in Committee to remove this pernicious little power.

Allowing an elected politician to tamper with the register of voters in this way is something akin to a Henry VIII power. It was as far back as 1918 that responsibility for compiling registers was transferred to public officials who were independent of the candidates and their friends. We should not undo this staunch underpinning of the voting system. We have been reminded how the register was undermined by the poll tax, when suddenly there was a price to being on it. It has taken much work to pull back from that, so never again should a politician be able to take a decision, such as ending the annual canvass, that could so impact on people’s right to vote.

What is lacking in the Bill? What does this House, in the words of the noble Lord, Lord Dobbs, have a duty to sort? First, we must secure cross-party agreement on timing and implementation to ensure that this is done for the sake of our whole democracy and not just one part of it—or should I say “party”? We want a guarantee of adequate funding for the job; “Don’t skimp” was the advice from the noble Lord, Lord Norton of Louth. We need a proper mitigation plan should the pilots suggest that the methodology is not robust. We need sufficient safeguards to ensure that there is no reduction in completeness and fairness. We need provision to carry over postal votes to the new register without people having to reapply for them. We need the removal of the power for a party-elected Minister to abolish the annual canvass. And we need to carry over the May 2015 register for the December redistribution of boundaries, otherwise it will look as if the parties in Government are artificially omitting those least likely to register, such as the young, tenants and the mobile, from the all-important numerical count.

My predecessors fought for the right of women to vote. The noble Lord, Lord Dobbs, used the word “sacrifice”—and they did. Today we must ensure that the urban, the young and even the rioters, to use the words of the noble Lord, Lord Griffiths, are enabled and encouraged to register. The new scheme must help make the right to vote a reality for a greater proportion of our citizens. We must do all that we can to make individual registration a benefit and not a way of excluding voters. This should be above and apart from party politics. It is too important to play games with. It is a matter of fairness, accuracy, inclusivity and consensus. We hope that the Government will heed our concerns.

--- Later in debate ---

[Lord Wallace of Saltaire]

I was just coming to the further detail. Perhaps I may issue a personal invitation. A number of parliamentarians have already seen a demonstration of the website that is to be used for registration. I am happy to offer a further demonstration of the prototype if any noble Lord, including the noble and learned Lord, Lord Falconer, would like to see it. Progress is being made, but it is being tested as we move forward.

The noble Baroness, Lady Gould, and others suggested that the data-matching pilot had not yet been evaluated. The Electoral Commission and the Cabinet Office have evaluated the pilots undertaken so far. A further exercise is taking place this year, and that will be evaluated over the next few months. The first pilots were very valuable in testing the usefulness of data matching and what is required to share and match data effectively. The evidence suggests that we can simplify the transition for existing electors by using data matching to confirm their details as accurate. As I have already explained, it produces a floor of around two-thirds of people, which enables us to concentrate our efforts on the remaining third to make sure that we get them back on the register as well. Later this year we will run a second set of pilots to confirm the conclusions of the first round and to refine the process of matching data.

The noble Lord, Lord Rennard, suggested that we should use data mining on private databases as well. I have to say that we would begin to get into issues of privacy and access to data if we were to go too far in that direction. As I have been learning about this process—and in regard to the census—I can hear Liberty and some other groups at my back as they begin to worry about it, so there are questions of privacy. However, we are speaking to organisations that hold potentially useful data, including the credit reference agencies, to establish the most useful data for the purposes of finding people who are not registered.

The noble Baroness, Lady Gould, asked about the publicity campaign. That will be the responsibility of the Electoral Commission, which of course will play a major role in the entire process. I do not accept the suggestion of the noble Baroness, Lady Hayter, that there is an apparent downgrading of the role of the Electoral Commission. Perhaps we can discuss that further before the Committee stage, but if it is a concern then clearly we need to meet it. I anticipated the question about risk registers. The Government do not publish risk registers, and we can return to the point at a later stage.

I was asked why we are abolishing the annual canvass. I again suggest that we have no intention of abolishing it until we are sure that we are getting sufficiently good results by other means.

[Baroness Hayter of Kentish Town]

The question I put to the noble Lord was why the Government had taken on the power to do so rather than it coming back to the other House.

[Lord Wallace of Saltaire]

It may be that the other House thinks that it needs an affirmative resolution. It is a very good point that we can of course discuss in Committee, but it certainly does not need primary legislation. As the noble Baroness knows, it has been carried through in Northern Ireland and it appears to have been successful there.

The noble Baroness, Lady Gould, asked about whether there would be a single level for the civil penalty. We intend to reach a single level within the spectrum, but we are consulting with various interested parties on what they think the appropriate level should be. Perhaps the noble Baroness would like to put down an amendment suggesting that we adopt the Finnish system, which is that the appropriate level should be a percentage of a person’s declared income for the year. That is how the Finns impose traffic and parking fines, but that is not our intention at the moment.