---

Representation of the People (Electoral Registration Data Schemes) Regulations 2011

My Lords, it is a pleasure to follow my noble friend and all noble Lords who have made important contributions to an important debate. I do not intend to delay the proceedings for long, not least because the Minister made such a compelling case for these statutory instruments that there is little to add. I agree with almost everything that I heard him say. However, I have a few questions. Of course, if he is unable to answer them directly today, I should be grateful if he would write to me in due course. I agree with the noble Lord, Lord Tyler, that it is crucial with this sort of legislation to strike the balance correctly between the efficient discharge of achieving desirable public objectives and protecting the liberty of the individual. As far as I can see, the Government, in this careful approach, have struck that balance well. The House and Parliament owe the Minister and his colleagues a debt of gratitude on the way in which they have approached the matter. These statutory instruments can play an important part, as we have heard, in tackling the continuing and serious problem of under-registration. Until now, there has been general agreement that the figure of between 3 million and 3.5 million, based on work by the Electoral Commission some years ago, represents the number of people who are eligible to vote but cannot do so because they are not on the register. First, is the Minister aware of the report in the Guardian today that is based on the work carried out by Chris Ruane MP and suggests that the figure may not be between 3 million and 3.5 million but closer to 6 million? Will he commission his officials to contact Mr Ruane to investigate the validity of that figure and report back to Parliament on the findings? Secondly, the previous Government, as I am sure the Minister is aware, felt that the power in the Political Parties and Elections Act to make such statutory instruments was necessary but was not sufficient. Had we been re-elected, we would certainly have brought forward further measures to improve registration rates. I should therefore be grateful if the Minister could tell us what measures this Government have considered to improve the electoral register over and above those brought in or presaged by the previous Government. Which of those measures that this Government have so considered are they planning to bring forward and when will they do so? If the Minister is unable to answer now, I should be grateful if he could write to me. Will the Minister also explain why it has taken more than a year to bring forward these statutory instruments? I concede straightaway that, as I am sure he will immediately point out, the PPE Act received Royal Assent in July 2009 and that the statutory instruments that were necessary suffered in what is always the inevitable traffic jam of statutory instruments at the end of a Parliament. The Minister does not need to dwell on that point in his reply. However, this Government do not have that excuse. Given that when they came to power the cupboard was almost inevitably pretty well bare of such a logjam of statutory instruments, and given the importance that everyone who has spoken attaches to improving the electoral register, especially in the context of all the other constitutional reforms that this Government are bringing forward—the noble Lord, Lord Tyler, referred to our extensive debate on these matters in which the question of electoral registration has come up time and again on all sides of the House— please can the Minister tell us why it has taken quite so long to bring forward these statutory instruments? I am quite sure that I will not be alone in hoping for some sort of explanation. I note that these statutory instruments have been coupled elsewhere with the Government’s intention to rush forward with the introduction of individual registration. I should like to put on record and conclude with my strong objections to this attempt to justify the unjustifiable. The previous Government put in place measures for the implementation of individual registration. That is undoubtedly desirable; there is now agreement, certainly among everyone who has spoken, about that. However, the previous Government tied individual registration to the achievement as far as reasonably practicable—I am again grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Tyler, for quoting the exact words—of a comprehensive and accurate register. This is crucial. All the analyses agree—I do not think that there is any serious disagreement about this—that the introduction of individual registration runs a serious risk of damaging rates of registration. Desirable as it is, that is a perverse consequence of bringing it in. To rush forward before the register is complete, comprehensive and accurate, as the Government are proposing, risks rendering an already flawed system deeply more flawed. That would be bad enough, but such damage would have a partisan effect. Although the Minister may try to deny this, most analysts agree that the voters most likely to fall off the register in these circumstances would be more disposed to vote Labour.