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European Parliamentary Elections (Franchise of Relevant Citizens of the Union) (Amendment) Regulations 2009

I thank the Minister for introducing these regulations and for speaking to the other two orders. I offer him my commiserations for his voice, which sounds as though it is beginning to go. I do not know whether he needs a rest. Perhaps the whole Government need a rest. Looking at the picture of Daniel in Babylon, one can see the writing on the wall. Possibly that is not a very good joke, but there it is. I offer my commiserations to the noble Lord for his health and I hope that his voice will get better in due course. As my noble friend Mrs Laing made clear in the Commons, we support these regulations in principle. We all want to do what we can to improve the electoral system and to ensure the absolute integrity of the ballot box. All three parties must admit that we have had problems at the ballot box over the past few years and, recalling the newspaper reports that we have read about that, all three parties have suffered from a number of colleagues who treated matters in a manner that they should not have done. We hope that the appropriate ones have all been caught and dealt with by the courts in due course. It is very important that we get this right. While on the subject, perhaps I may refer to individual voter registration. Although this goes wide of the regulations, the issue was raised by the Government towards the end of the Political Parties and Elections Bill in the Commons last night. Obviously that Bill will come to us in a couple of weeks’ time—I forget on which day Second Reading will take place—and it would therefore be useful if the Minister could expand on what the Government said last night about what they are proposing to do about individual voter registration. I welcome the fact that they say they can bring it forward but—this is where I suspect that both we and the Liberal Democrat Party will feel slightly suspicious—they have implied that they cannot bring it through until something like 2015 or 2016. One suspects that the Government could bring it forward a bit quicker if they really wanted to. We wait to hear what the Minister can say about that. I hope he will give an assurance that they can bring it forward earlier. If they cannot, I have a sneaking suspicion that when the Political Parties and Elections Bill goes through this House, my party and one or two others might want to bring forward some amendments that might hasten the introduction of individual data registration. We will listen very carefully to what the Minister has to say. My second point concerns data sharing. As the noble Lord will know, my honourable friend Mrs Laing raised the question of data sharing again when these regulations went through the other place. She is very concerned about that subject and has raised it on a number of occasions. Mr Wills, speaking for the Government, said in response to her: ""On many occasions, I have heard the hon. Lady refer to the perils of data sharing—she has done so again today—but I have never heard her explain the advantages and benefits that it brings".—[Official Report, Commons, Third Delegated Legislation Committee, 25/2/09; col. 12.]" Oh dear. If the Government cannot see what the potential problems of data sharing within government are, they have a great deal to learn. We have problems with data sharing in these orders—they crop up again and again in a number of measures—and if the Government cannot see what the problem is, they will have to pull their socks up and move in some way. I await the Minister’s response, particularly on individual data registration.