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Electoral Administration Bill

Before my noble friend winds up on her amendments, I have no problem at all with the Minister’s seeking to explore different technologies for the future, and I am sure that those will change. However, as regards public confidence, it will be a matter of reassurance, before we start trying new methods, if the country as a whole has confidence that the rudimentary methods that we use at the moment are fraud proof. If we were to have a repetition of the Birmingham events, that would deal a very serious blow to confidence in the security of the system. Therefore, I hope that too much of the Government’s time will not be spent in thinking of ways of changing the system and that proportionately more time will be spent in making sure that it is secure.