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Electoral Administration Bill

I may be an expert on knocking on doors; I am not sure that I am an expert in interpretations of language. I think that everybody accepts that the amendment of the noble Lord, Lord Norton of Louth, would mean that a knock has to take place. I am not sure why a knock has to take place at all if a form has already been sent back. That is an interesting question, which the Minister might like to consider. It may be that we now want to check what people are sending back on their forms to get it better. The point at the moment is actually very different. It is that a lot of local registration officers are not knocking on the doors of a lot of their electors at all. For example, I have information that, in Reading, the town-centre wards are concentrating on people who have been on the roll for two years under the retention provisions and not bothering about people who have been on it for only one year and have not returned their forms. If we want an accurate register, that is incredibly sloppy. To add a duty that they have to knock at least once is actually a great step forward.