Electoral Administration Bill

One could make two specific points about national insurance numbers. First, a small number of people do not have one. Secondly, when people die, they remain flagged up on the national insurance computer so that their widows can continue to receive pensions. The hon. Gentleman is therefore right to suggest that the system would not be perfect, but what is perfect in this world? However, it would take matters a good deal further. It has been tried in Northern Ireland and the people who administer it there say that it works well. Given the extent to which public confidence has been damaged by what has happened in this country, surely we should introduce a system that everybody agrees meets the challenge. That is where the Minister fails. Over-registration is a serious matter. Although it is regrettable when a person does not take up the right to vote—some people choose not to do so but we would all like people to take up the right—we can tackle the problem and I would like us to do that. However, over-registration is a warning sign of the scope for corruption and electoral malpractice. When the Government give powers to electoral registration officers to do more, I hope that they will clearly include the duty to ensure that people who are not entitled to vote come off the register. A democracy desert is a place not only where not everybody votes but where people who should not be able to vote do so. There is no democracy in those circumstances. I heard the Minister’s comments about service voters. She is clearly examining the matter, but I stress that it is urgent. It is wrong and unacceptable that people who are serving their country cannot vote. Nothing in the Bill will improve the position. Is it possible for the Minister to find some way of tackling the problem during the Bill’s passage? It is a failing in the measure if nothing is done to provide a mechanism whereby our service personnel are assured of their vote. I would also like a provision to encourage overseas voters because they are entitled to vote and there appears to be nothing for them in the measure. The Government may suggest that the reasoned amendment is an attempt to act against the anti-fraud provisions. I do not believe that they go far enough. The Bill makes an offence of providing false information when applying for a postal vote. That is a tiny tightening of the law. Let us not forget that the Representation of the People Act 1983 already makes it an offence to vote fraudulently by post or to attempt to do that. The Bill extends time limits for prosecutions but we should not forget the comments of the election court in Birmingham:"““No sanctions are of any real value, however, unless elections can be policed. As became very apparent in the trial of these Petitions, in real terms the policing of electoral fraud is minimal to the point of being almost non-existent.””" Other changes are worth while—for example, the requirement of a signature at the polling station and the provision for creating a marked register for postal votes. One would not argue with those provisions. However, the genuine alternatives are individual registration with national insurance numbers and scrapping postal voting.