Proceeding contribution from Baroness Hanham (Conservative) in the House of Lords on Monday, 19 June 2006. It occurred during Debates on delegated legislation on Representation of the People (Form of Canvass) (England and Wales) Regulations 2006.
Representation of the People (Form of Canvass) (England and Wales) Regulations 2006
I thank the Minister for his explanation about this form. I am delighted to learn that so many great minds have concentrated on making sure that it is correct. I have two questions. I am not sure how it differs from the previous form in terms of verbiage, but it is still quite confusing. The form is to the occupier, a person who is head of the household. One person is required to fill in this form. It then addresses the person as ““you””, and says, ““you are required to give the information on this form””. That is to the occupier, so he is required to do so. It then says, in a chatty sort of way, ““you are entitled to vote if you are a British, Irish, European or qualifying Commonwealth citizen””, which tends to look as if it is to the individual. Either you say to an occupier, ““the people in your household who are entitled to vote are British, Irish, European”” and so on, or you say to an individual voter—and we do not yet have individual registration—““you are entitled to vote””. There is a lot of confusion here between the general and the specific, which could be quite muddling. People get confused about how to complete this form. I understood that an EU citizen was entitled to be included on the register on the understanding that they were entitled to vote in EU elections, and that they were also entitled to vote in local elections. It does not say so. It says that for anything to do with European parliamentary elections you can ring up, which does not seem to be very helpful. No one will ever remember to ring the helpline. That is not very clear. I have no objection to the changes to the form. It will have to be changed again next year, because we have just made changes to the form under the Electoral Administration Bill as there will be individual registration for those requiring postal votes. The new form will have a short life, although it may be a merry one. In the interests of accuracy and comprehensibility, would the Minister please answer those questions?
Secondary information
- Type
- Proceeding contribution
- Reference
- 683 c105GC
- Session
- 2005-06
- Chamber / Committee
- House of Lords Grand Committee
- Subjects
- Disclosure of information Administration Campaigns Electorate Electoral register Households Forms Staff Scotland Registration
- Legislation
- Representation of the People (Form of Canvass) (England and Wales) Regulations 2006
- Representation of the People (Form of Canvass) (Scotland) Regulations 2006
- Link
- View this Proceeding contribution on www.publications.parliament.uk
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