Draft Representation of the People (Postal and Proxy Voting etc.) (Amendment) Regulations 2024

Florence Eshalomi Excerpts

Monday 15th January 2024 General Committees

[Florence Eshalomi (Vauxhall) (Lab/Co-op)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship this afternoon, Mrs Cummins. I thank the Minister for her introduction. We all want any legislation introduced to be in proper order, but we understand that errors can be made during drafting, so we do not intend to be too critical of those mistakes. I hope that the Minister can look at the other problems presented by the Elections Act that we have previously discussed bringing forward corrections to. If the Government bring forward such corrections, they will not find an enemy in me.

The Minister outlined the huge task of, and changes made in, the Elections Act. I have sympathy with her on the task of introducing so many complex changes to electoral statute. I would like her to address how the Government expect our already stretched electoral administrators up and down the country to get their head around the changes when the Government themselves are making errors in the implementation.

The Minister outlined the timing. The correction is extremely time sensitive, as it fills a gap that will be left once the provisions in schedule 2 to the unamended regulations begin to expire at the end of this month. Otherwise, old, incorrect information on the number of people for whom a voter can act as proxy would be used in elections after 31 January and before May. Regardless of the merits of any piece of legislation, it is deeply concerning if forms mandated by legislation provide incorrect information on how the public should interpret the law. That is particularly true of electoral law; misinformation could damage the public’s trust in our electoral and democratic process. I therefore welcome the correction from the Government, and will support it, in the expectation that it will be in place before the end of the month. I pay tribute to the Joint Committee on Statutory Instruments for its work in drawing attention to the error, and ensuring that it is corrected in a timely manner.