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Electoral Administration Bill

My Lords, since the Liberal Democrats have photographs on the information papers that are sent out about elections for our main party offices and committees, it would be somewhat illogical of me to oppose these amendments. I have to say I am doubtful how useful they are, since it is hard to imagine any freepost documents being sent out by a political party without a photograph of their candidate on, so I cannot say I regard this as a great step forward. However, it is at least worth having pilots to see whether there is any additional benefit. I take the point that it is desirable that photographs should be those of relatively recent age, which may have the good effect of counteracting the rather youthful photographs that may appear in the circulated freepost material. While I cannot say that we feel strongly about this, we are certainly willing to support it. I would just ask why, if an undertaking was given in November to provide pilots for photographs on ballot papers, it has taken until the middle of May to get the drafts of the necessary amendments into the public arena.