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Electoral Administration Bill

My Lords, I add my support to the amendments put forward by the noble Baroness, Lady Hanham, and the noble Lord, Lord Garden. I speak as a former Adjutant-General, where I was head of personnel to the Army. In that post I was responsible for personnel matters including the registration of people for election. All I can say is that up until then we were concerned that the difficulties being put in the way of service men made it virtually impossible for them to vote, and that we were pleased about the progress being made to enable them to do so through the use of proxy and postal voting. It was therefore disappointing to see that what we had achieved had been reversed. While I was in post, we proposed that the measures now being put forward by the noble Lord, Lord Garden, should be implemented by the Ministry of Defence. They would aid the whole process of registration and it was perfectly possible to do this within the chain of command operated by the Ministry of Defence. No other ministry needed to be involved. I hope very much that the Government will accept these amendments, thus enabling the effective enfranchisement of service men in the future.