Electoral Administration Bill

I support my hon. Friend the Member for Huntingdon (Mr. Djanogly) in his amendment. I also agree with the hon. Member for Sheffield, Attercliffe (Mr. Betts) that we need to increase registration, as there is undoubtedly under-registration. I thoroughly agree with the intention of his amendments even though, as he admitted, they may be not quite technically accurate enough for acceptance. My hon. Friend the Member for Huntingdon is right to try to get the balance right, whether it be at subsection (1) or subsection (5). There should be a balance between an increase in registration and getting the register right. The hon. Member for Southport (Dr. Pugh) and other Members pointed out that there is far more under-registration than wrongful registration. That is a valid point, but our view is that it is also a question of confidence in the security of the electoral system—the point made by the hon. Member for Pendle (Mr. Prentice)—and individual results may be influenced in local authority elections, for example. In such cases, there would certainly be scandal or invidious press comment and the whole process would become a shambles. I am sure that the Government do not want that any more than Members do. It is not a quantitative question, but one of confidence, and my hon. Friend’s amendment addresses that squarely. If we can find that balanced approach, I am sure that the House can reach consensus on the issue. Secondly, I want to raise a point that was brought to the attention of the House and the Minister by Dame Marion Roe, who was formerly the Member of Parliament for Broxbourne, and who is happily not entirely disengaged from politics as she is one of my constituents. She pointed out that probably many foreign nationals on the register are not Commonwealth, European Union or Irish citizens and are certainly not British citizens. They may be immigrants whose cases are in a pending tray at the Home Office and who are not properly yet entitled to be on the register. Somehow they get on to the register, not necessarily with fraudulent intent—they may simply have filled in a form that was thrust through their letterbox because they thought that they should. They may not have completed the form accurately because they do not understand the language. They may have filled it in because they thought that if they were not on the register they would not be able to claim benefits or have access to a parking scheme. They may be Turkish, Kosovan or some other nationality and they are not allowed to vote. It is certainly the case, as the Minister may point out, that the recent change in the application form to require that people include their nationality should significantly deal with the issue. I think that requirement is on all the most recent application forms. That is good but it will not satisfactorily deal with the problem.