Electoral Administration Bill

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The Committee consisted of the following Members:

Chairmen: † Mr. Edward O'Hara, Derek Conway

†Bellingham, Mr. Henry (North-West Norfolk) (Con)

†Betts, Mr. Clive (Sheffield, Attercliffe) (Lab)

†Binley, Mr. Brian (Northampton, South) (Con)

†Brennan, Kevin (Cardiff, West) (Lab)

†Cairns, David (Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Scotland)

†Devine, Mr. Jim (Livingston) (Lab)

Djanogly, Mr. Jonathan (Huntingdon) (Con)

†Harman, Ms Harriet (Minister of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs)

†Heath, Mr. David (Somerton and Frome) (LD)

†Johnson, Ms Diana R. (Kingston upon Hull, North) (Lab)
 
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†Keeley, Barbara (Worsley) (Lab)

†Laing, Mrs. Eleanor (Epping Forest) (Con)

†Linton, Martin (Battersea) (Lab)

†McGovern, Mr. Jim (Dundee, West) (Lab)

†Pugh, Dr. John (Southport) (LD)

†Robinson, Mr. Peter (Belfast, East) (DUP)

†Ruane, Chris (Vale of Clwyd) (Lab)

Geoffrey Farrar, Matthew Whittaker, Committee Clerks

†attended the Committee
 
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Standing Committee B

Tuesday 15 November 2005

(Morning)

[Mr. Edward O'Hara in the Chair]

Electoral Administration Bill

(Except clauses Nos. 9 to 18; any new clauses or new schedules relating to part 2 or part 3 of the Bill; any new clauses or new schedules relating to the procedure to be followed at an election on the death of a candidate; and any new clauses or new schedules relating to candidates standing in more than one constituency at an election.)

10.30 am

The Chairman: Order. I remind the Committee that there is a money resolution in connection with the Bill, copies of which are in the Room. I also remind Members that adequate notice of proposed amendments should be given, and that, as is the normal convention, my co-Chairman and I will not, as a general rule, call starred amendments. Will Members please ensure that pagers and mobile phones are either turned off or in silent mode during Committee sittings?

Our first business is to consider the programme motion, debate on which may last for up to half an hour.

The Minister of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs (Ms Harriet Harman): I beg to move,

That—

(1) during the proceedings on the Electoral Administration Bill, in addition to its first meeting at 10.30 am on Tuesday 15th November, the Standing Committee shall meet at:

(a) 4.00 p.m on Tuesday 15th November,

(b) 9.00 am and 1.00 pm on Thursday 17th November,

(c) 10.30 am and 4.00 pm on Tuesday 22nd November,

(d) 9.00 am and 1.00 p.m on Thursday 24th November;

(2) the Bill be considered in the following order, namely, Clauses 1 to 8, Clauses 19 to 66, Schedules 1 and 2, Clauses 67 to 71, new Clauses, new Schedules, remaining proceedings on the Bill;

(3) proceedings on the Bill shall (so far as not previously concluded) be brought to a conclusion at 4.00 p.m on Thursday 24th November.

I welcome you to the Chair, Mr. O'Hara. Issues of electoral administration are close to all our hearts. I know that barely a waking moment goes by in which you do not think about achieving a complete and accurate register in Knowsley. There are keen volunteers on both sides of the Committee who are well experienced in these matters and who will bring to bear their experience of electoral administration in their constituencies.

On Second Reading, we said—we shall keep true to it—that we in the Department of Constitutional Affairs are simply custodians of this issue for the House; we do not regard it as a totally owned issue. We will be open-minded. If Back Benchers from either side of the Committee table amendments that make sense and support them with strong arguments, we will accept them. We will listen to the argument and make our case.
 
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Mrs. Eleanor Laing (Epping Forest) (Con): I, too, welcome you to the Chair, Mr. O'Hara. I am sure that the Committee will be a constructive one. We had a good debate on Second Reading. There are certain matters upon which the Opposition disagree with the Government, but they are not enormous. I look forward to dealing with those matters in Committee, and I hope that the Minister and her colleagues will listen to arguments from both sides, as she kindly and courteously said that they would. Likewise, I hope that we will achieve a degree of consensus by the end of the Committee stage, because as the Minister said, the general purport of the Bill is good and necessary, and close to all our hearts. I support the resolution of the Programming Sub-Committee.

Mr. David Heath (Somerton and Frome) (LD): I, too, welcome you to the Chair, Mr. O'Hara. I have served under your chairmanship on long and complex Bills, but I hope that this Committee will be a shorter affair. I see no reason why the Committee should spend a great deal of time on its deliberations, although there are important matters to consider. We must deal with those expeditiously—thoroughly, but without unnecessarily prolonging the time that we spend here. I am happy with the programme motion and look forward to consideration of the many important amendments before the Committee.

Question put and agreed to.

The Chairman: Before we commence our consideration of the Bill, I remind Members that parts 2 and 3 have already been considered by a Committee of the whole House, and that this Committee may not rehearse matters that have been discussed in the Chamber. I shall be vigilant, as will my co-Chairman, to ensure that debate does not stray into those areas.

Clause 1

CORE schemes: establishment

Mrs. Laing: I beg to move amendment No. 35, in clause 1, page 1, line 4, after 'may', insert

', pursuant to consultation with all affected political parties,'.

The Chairman: With this it will be convenient to discuss the following amendments:

No. 36, in clause 1, page 1, line 11, leave out 'may' and insert 'must'.

No. 37, in clause 1, page 2, line 5, at end insert

', and

(c) require the CORE keeper to maintain the information securely to protect the integrity of the information from non-specified third parties.'.

No. 43, in clause 6, page 5, line 42, at end insert

'; and

(e) affected political parties.'.

Mrs. Laing: Part 1 concerns the co-ordinated online record of electors—the CORE scheme. In principle it is a good idea, but we have concerns about it. Amendment No. 35 would alter clause 1 so that it would read, ''The Secretary of State may, pursuant to consultation with all affected political parties, by order make provision for the establishment of one or more
 
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schemes (CORE schemes) in connection with the keeping and use of specified electoral registration information by a person designated by a scheme (the CORE keeper).''

The consultation process is important; those who administer the schemes will learn from them as time goes on. Indeed, it is hard to imagine why there should not be consultation on such a matter. The whole point of the Bill is to achieve consensus on how we deal with electoral administration. As the Minister has said previously, as the matter affects all relevant political parties, and we should therefore achieve some sort of consensus, a consultation process would be a good first step. Without consultation, how can it be known whether there is consensus?

Amendment No. 36 would strengthen the clause. Clause 1(3) refers to a scheme that ''may'' require an electoral registration officer to provide the CORE keeper with the information and to update the information. It is hard to understand why the Bill should leave that as an optional extra. If we consider that the electoral registration officer should do certain things, why should the Bill say that the scheme ''may'' require it? Surely the scheme must require it. Whether it is required should not be left open to discussion. That is why we consider that the word ''must'' should replace the word ''may''.

Likewise, amendment No. 37 refers to subsection (6). We suggest that an additional paragraph (c) be inserted to

''require the CORE keeper to maintain the information securely to protect the integrity of the information from non-specified third parties.''

We do not mean to challenge what the Government propose; the amendment is intended to enhance the Bill. It is surely necessary that the information garnered be maintained securely—the electoral register contains sensitive information—and the integrity of the information should be protected from non-specified third parties.

Amendment No. 42 refers to—

The Chairman: Order. Amendment No. 42 is to be taken under clause 2.

Mrs. Laing: I beg your pardon, Mr. O'Hara; I meant to say amendment No. 43, which is included in the group, although it refers to clause 6. It is similar to amendment No. 35 in that it refers to ''affected political parties''. I presume that is why they are grouped together. Having made the point on amendment No. 35, I need not repeat myself.

The Chairman: Order. Amendments with a similar purport that refer to later clauses but are included in an earlier debate are taken as read when we come to those later clauses. I sympathise with the hon. Lady, because the CORE scheme is dealt with in a number of clauses; it is therefore difficult not to stray. Indeed, when the Minister responds to the debate, she may wish to stray across the whole group of amendments—and I may allow her some discretion, as that may be easier than having repetitious debates on later clauses. We may as a result be able to shorten debate on stand part, but we do still have that opportunity for debate.
 
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Mr. Heath: Thank you, Mr. O'Hara, for that extremely wise guidance.

The Chairman: I am allowed to pontificate.

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Prepared 15 November 2005