Absent Voting (Elections in Scotland and Wales) Bill

Lord Rennard Excerpts

Friday 24th October 2025 Lords Chamber

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (Baroness Taylor of Stevenage) (Lab)]

My Lords, I thank the noble Lord for his comments. I thank all noble Lords for their contributions to and support for the Bill, and particularly my noble friend Lord Murphy of Torfaen for his stewardship of the Bill through this House.

Our democracy remains at the heart of our Government’s purpose and mission. On the point made by the noble Lord, Lord Jamieson, the Government will bring forward a number of changes in the forthcoming elections Bill, which will come before this House in due course; we will have the opportunity to discuss these matters further at that point.

I thank my noble friend Lord Murphy for his excellent contribution to our democratic process.

[Lord Rennard (LD)]

Before the Minister sits down, I note that I agree with some of the comments of the noble Lord, Lord Jamieson, if not all of them. He makes some good points about the different gaps in and problems within our election laws. In our Second Reading and Committee debates, many of us across the House spoke about the need to consolidate properly all election laws.

We recognise that the noble Lord, Lord Murphy, has done extremely well in bringing this Bill forward— I shall call it a small, tidying-up measure. It is still a very important principle that people in Scotland and Wales can apply online to vote as absent voters; that should probably have been done in 2022, without needing a Private Member’s Bill. We frequently have debates in which the expertise in this House highlights the need, as the law commissions keep emphasising, for proper consolidation of election laws, bringing together the legislation of 2000 and the old legislation of the Representation of the People Act. Can the Minister say a bit more about the Government’s intention regarding consolidating election law in general?

[Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)]

I thank the noble Lord, Lord Rennard; he is right to flag up that more work is to be done on elections. That is why, in response to the noble Lord, Lord Jamieson, I referred to the forthcoming elections Bill. I am sure that noble Lords in this House, where there is indeed a great deal of expertise in election matters, will want to contribute to that Bill as it comes forward.

I hope we will be able to incorporate many of the matters we have discussed over the years that have been missed out of the elections process or need further tightening because of current circumstances— I believe that the noble Lord, Lord Jamieson, was referring to that too. We have seen a significant change in the way things operate, so we need to make sure that election law keeps up with that. That is our aim as we bring forward the elections Bill, and I look forward to the contributions of all Members of the House when we do so.