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Electoral Administration Bill

The fall in the number of people registered was about 120,000. It is often claimed that that shows that people who should have been on the register were no longer on it. However, the Electoral Commission, which has looked into the matter, and Denis Stanley, the electoral registration officer for Northern Ireland, do not say that. They say that the single signature has improved the accuracy of the register. The level of registration in Northern Ireland is high compared with the areas about which the Minister, the hon. Member for Vale of Clwyd (Chris Ruane) and I are concerned. Labour councils in inner-city areas have not done anything to address the problem of under-registration, which requires an active campaign and proper canvassing, and I welcome the fact that the Minister now talks about those things. I welcome the idea of data matching and checking, which the Select Committee has rightly suggested. However, let us not kid ourselves that everybody has been working hard and busting a gut trying to get people to register in the inner cities, because they have not.