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Electoral Administration Bill

I am sorry to interrupt the noble Lord, but there is nothing between him and anyone in this Committee on this point. The question is how you effectively reflect that in writing parliamentary legislation: you say that they keep a register. What to do about the disparity between different areas, and the way in which electoral registration officers perform—perhaps the noble Lord would say ““do not perform””—their function, needs to be addressed, I agree. We are seeking to address it both within legislation in an appropriate way and—as, if not more, important—by working with electoral registration officers to ensure that we have as accurate and up-to-date a register as possible, especially, as the noble Lord knows, by looking at why so many people are not on the register. There is nothing between us. It is simply that, as for what goes in the Bill, our view is that electoral registration officers must maintain a register which is accurate; that is implicit. However, we completely agree with the noble Lord that there is a lot of work to do to ensure that we deal with that in practical terms. I hope that the noble Lord will withdraw the amendment on that basis.