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Representation of the People (Amendment) Regulations 2008

We are again grateful to the Minister for giving his explanation of the instrument. As he said, the regulations speak for themselves. They deal largely with the fees for the marked registers which those of us involved in the political process regard as a useful tool—I think that everyone here has been involved electorally in one way or another, helping out in elections. The order deals purely with fees. I shall not discuss those but simply use this opportunity to ask the Minister whether he can answer one or two important questions on electoral fraud that have come up before in the House. There have, as we know, been problems with the register, especially with individual registration, or lack of individual registration. We have had promises from the Government that they will at some stage bring forward individual registration, which would certainly deal with many of the fraud problems experienced at the moment and which certain judges in certain cases have highlighted. I would be grateful if the Minister could let us know where the Government are on that matter and when they hope to bring forward further primary or secondary legislation that might bring forward individual registration to deal with that problem. Having said that, we have no intention of opposing the regulations—which, as I said, relate merely to the fees levied for the marked registers.