Electoral Administration Bill

The Bill will extend the time in which the police can investigate before they prosecute. I do not know whether that addresses the exact point that the hon. Gentleman makes, but it is something along those lines—I will have to write to him. As with registration, the key to tackling fraud is to give electoral administrators the powers, duties and resources that they need. There will be new electoral fraud offences in the Bill. We have strengthened current offences, created new ones and toughened up penalties. As I said, we are extending the time in which the police can undertake investigations, and in polling stations we will require voters to sign for their ballot paper. People have to sign for a recorded delivery, but they do not currently have to sign for a vote. Doing so will be an extra security measure. The Bill includes a number of measures to ensure the security of postal voting. We will require administrators to write to everyone who has applied for a postal vote to confirm it. Unless another individual living in someone’s house is opening their post they can be confident that their postal vote application is secure. We will require voters to give a reason if they want their postal vote to be redirected to an address different from the one on the electoral register. We will bring forward the deadline for applying for a postal vote to give electoral administrators more time to check applications, and we will make it clear that electoral administrators have the power to check signatures on applications to vote by post. If passed, secondary legislation will be introduced in time for the May 2006 council elections. In the Bill, we allow local authorities to pilot a scheme making identifiers such as someone’s signature or date of birth a condition for inclusion in the electoral register. Hon. Members will know that the Electoral Commission recommended individual registration. We have decided that rather than go straight to a national roll-out, we should test the proposal first. We need to be able to assess in practice the security benefits of such a system, as well as the extent to which it compounds the problem of under-registration. Under-registration is not a problem in all areas, but it is an acute problem in some. We cannot afford the risk that even more of our poor, black and young people who are eligible to vote are unable to do so because they are left off the register. We need tough anti-fraud measures, and we are taking them. We need to try out individual signatures as a condition for inclusion on the register, and we are doing so. We will proceed in an evidence-based and, I hope, sure-footed way. Individual registration is not a principle, but a means to an end. We will try it out to see whether it works. The principles at stake are security and access and we will not compromise on either. The Electoral Commission will play a key role in supporting and evaluating the pilots. I expect that local authorities with the greatest fear of fraud such as that of the hon. Member for Shipley (Philip Davies) will be the first to volunteer for the pilots. Anticipating the comments of the official Opposition, I believe that before we make significant changes we need to be as sure as possible that they are right. As I have said, we will adopt an evidence-based approach. We will not take risks with the security of the vote, nor are we willing to take risks with the register and people’s right to vote. We will evaluate the pilots and the results will be presented to the Select Committee on Constitutional Affairs and to the House. The next elections will be held in May 2006. I am already working closely with local authority chief executives, and I thank them for their work and all their ideas for improving the process, as well as electoral administrators, council leaders, police and, of course, hon. Members. To support their efforts in wards that are at risk of fraud we need to identify the relevant areas and take action. Such areas may be home to minority ethnic communities, but the men and women in those communities have as much right to participation in fair elections as anyone else. Wherever there is a threat of fraud we must take concerted action. Most areas do not have such fears, but where there is a history, or a new threat, of fraud we will back the individuals taking action at the local level. The Bill will give electoral registration officers a power to promote participation in elections to achieve higher turnout, and it will provide a ring-fenced fund. Everything in the Bill is underpinned by provisions for performance standards for electoral services, which will be set and monitored by the Electoral Commission, after consultations with the Secretary of State, to promote best practice. To enable them to carry out their greater responsibilities and exercise their wider powers and duties, we are allocating £17 million to local authorities over the next two years. I know that the hon. Member for South Staffordshire (Sir Patrick Cormack) will attempt to catch your eye, Madam Deputy Speaker, to make his proposals about the legal changes that are required when a candidate dies between nomination and election day. He is a senior and experienced Member of the House who has had more reason and more time to think about that than anyone else, so I am grateful to him for being prepared to sort the matter out, and I am making parliamentary drafting available to him so that he can table his proposals by way of amendments in Committee. As to the process, we will be seeking to deal with part of the Committee stage of the Bill on the Floor of the House. As this debate has demonstrated, the issue is one in which many Members of the House have a keen interest and a great deal of experience. The Bill is not a virility test for the Government or party politics. It is about improving democracy and tackling inequality. I will listen, as will my hon. Friend the Under-Secretary of State for Scotland, to the views of Members in all parts of the House. If hon. Members from whichever part of the House come forward with proposals of merit backed by reasoned arguments, we will accept their amendments. I hope that when the measure comes to be considered in another place there will be an acknowledgement that we have, in this elected House, given the Electoral Administration Bill the careful, impartial scrutiny that a measure reforming our democracy deserves. I commend the Bill to the House.