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Electoral Administration Bill

My Lords, I hope to have a response to the noble Lord’s final point, because it is a fair question. The noble Lord approaches this issue in exactly the right spirit. We want to talk to special interest groups and organisations representing people with disabilities and others to see whether there is merit in this proposal. As the noble Baroness, Lady Hanham, has indicated, there are downsides to this that may mean we find, when we consult, that this proposal does not go anywhere. That is why I was careful to say we would be consulting before we did anything. If we did not take the opportunity in the Bill to make the provisions to be able to try out this idea, then consulted and found that people felt there were good reasons to test it, that would be a pity. We could not table such amendments in Grand Committee, I am told, because these are very complicated provisions. I presume parliamentary counsel did not have them ready in time. This matter is worth consulting on, and, if it has merit, testing out. The noble Baroness will be one of the people consulted on it, as will the political parties. Clearly, if there is not merit in this, it will not be pursued. If there is merit in trying it out, let us do so and see what happens. It is as simple as that. On Question, amendment agreed to.