Commons Bill [HL]

I think that I understood the Minister’s full explanation, but I have some misgivings. One of the main complaints of the regime introduced by the 1965 Act was, as has just been said, that the register was not comprehensive in this field and was in a sense inadequate for its task. The Minister suggested that voluntary registration might be the way forward. However, there is a dilemma there because voluntary registration will by its very nature be incomplete. Therefore, those who consult the register expecting it to be comprehensive and complete will not find it to be so and they may well be misled by that. I hope that during consultation the Minister will reconsider whether there may not be some way in which he can move from a purely voluntary to a more substantial process, even if it is not full compulsion.