Electoral Administration Bill

My hon. Friend makes an excellent point, and one to which I am coming. The research undertaken by the commission revealed—I think that my right hon. and learned Friend referred to this in her opening remarks—the profile of unregistered electors. They are unemployed, low paid, young and living in rented accommodation. In the words of my right hon. and learned Friend, they are the most disengaged of our electorate. If proposals for a single signature for each elector had been adopted, the number of unregistered voters could have doubled to 7 million to 8 million, compared with 3 million to 4 million. When a single signature for each elector was adopted in Northern Ireland, there was a fall in the number of electors of about 10 per cent. To have 7 million to 8 million voters missing from the register is not the way that a western democracy should function. I asked my right hon. and learned Friend what the Electoral Commission had predicted if a single signature system were to be introduced in this country. I was horrified by her answer, which came from the Speaker’s Committee on the Electoral Commission. The commission stated that it had not undertaken any detailed research into the likely impact of the introduction of full individual registration in Great Britain on the levels of voter registration. The commission advises that such research would involve making a number of speculative assumptions and would thus be open to a significant margin of error. I am horrified that no research has been undertaken and that no predictions have been made. Serious action should be taken by the Government.