National Assembly for Wales (Representation of the People) (Amendment) Order 2016

Lord Wigley Excerpts

Monday 22nd February 2016 Grand Committee

[Lord Wigley (PC)]

My Lords, I apologise for missing the first two minutes, as I was in the Chamber trying to follow another devolution debate going on in parallel. I thank the noble Baroness for bringing these before the Committee. If she has not already said this in her opening remarks, will she confirm that there is unanimous backing for this in the National Assembly? I believe that to be the case—and therefore it is welcome.

I shall resist the temptation to ask her to clarify the grammatical errors in the Welsh language form, but that underlines one point—that many matters such as these should surely be devolved to the Assembly itself to handle rather than expecting Ministers with no knowledge of the Welsh language to handle it up here. Would I be correct in saying that, if the devolution Bill that is currently under consideration is passed as intended by the Government, that would put responsibility for matters such as these into the hands of the National Assembly, and therefore there would be no need to test the Minister on her detailed knowledge of the Welsh language?

[Lord Kennedy of Southwark (Lab)]

My Lords, these three regulations are being debated together, and at the outset I should say that I have no issues with the instruments before the Grand Committee today. However, I have a few points and questions for the noble Baroness, Lady Chisholm of Owlpen, and I am sure that she will be able to answer them for me.

First, in respect of the National Assembly for Wales order, I was pleased to see the addition of Article 23A, which concerns the inadequate performance of returning officers and the making of provisions for no payments. That will hopefully focus minds, but what are the Government going to do to deal with poor performance of returning officers in general? Payments can be withheld, but that is just imposing a monetary sanction; it is not actually dealing with the problem.

On Article 13, I was pleased to see that the expenses limit for candidates has been increased, as these elections were last contested five years ago and costs have increased for all candidates. Although we are not able to do it with this order, we need to get to a position whereby these allowances are automatically uprated by inflation, which would remove the need for this cumbersome process, involving officials, the Electoral Commission and everybody else.

In a similar vein, although I know that these issues are not part of these regulations, I hope that the Committee will forgive me for putting some other issues out there. The Government need to look at the whole question of recordable and reportable donations thresholds, which have not changed for well over six years and need to be uprated. Combining the polls with the PCC elections is sensible, makes for better, well-run elections, reduces costs and is helpful to both the administration of the election and voters alike.

The other matters in the order, which include allowing PCSOs to enter polling stations and making provision for people who had their postal vote rejected due to an identifier problem to be contacted to correct the problem for future elections, are very welcome.

Paragraph 7.6 of the Explanatory Memorandum refers to the work undertaken by the Law Commission to consolidate all our election law. For me, this cannot come soon enough. Election law is needlessly complex, hard to understand and contains far too many Acts, regulations and orders. A thorough rewriting would be in everyone’s interests, whether they be candidates, officials organising the elections or, most importantly, voters.

--- Later in debate ---

[Lord Wigley]

Would the noble Baroness confirm that the Government do consult on this with the National Assembly? The Assembly has the facility to discuss among the parties if it so determines, even as the law stands.

[Baroness Chisholm of Owlpen]

Yes, and it does so as part of its assignment of running and reporting on polls. It refers back to the Electoral Commission on how things have gone as well.

I think that that has covered all the points raised. The noble Lord, Lord Kennedy, also mentioned that it would be good to simplify election law. We all take that view, and I shall certainly take it back. I could not agree more that the staff are incredibly efficient and good at what they do. They cannot be praised highly enough.

I commend the statutory instruments to the Committee.