---

Northern Ireland (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill

I beg to move amendment No. 4, in page 5, leave out lines 17 to 24. I shall not withdraw this amendment before I have moved it, and I apologise for any chaos and confusion that I caused my colleagues in the Chamber earlier. Through the amendment, we want to find out why a person who registers close to the date of a poll will be denied the opportunity to have a postal or proxy vote. Although we welcome the extension of the registration deadline, we do not see why a person should be denied that opportunity. There seems to be no real reason why personal identifiers cannot easily be checked and applications verified. The explanatory notes state that the date for registering will be set out in regulations, but it is likely to be 11 days before the poll. If it is merely a question of sending out ballot papers and having them returned on time, would it make any difference if the late registration deadline was set at, for example, 14 days before the poll? It would be helpful if the Minister could give us a full explanation of the policy decisions behind the clause.