Electoral Administration Bill

The clause has wide-ranging support, not only from us, but from bodies such as the Society of Local Authority Chief Executives and Senior Managers—SOLACE. We even called for such a provision during the passage of the Representation of the People Act 2000. Establishing a system of anonymous registration for people whose safety could be compromised if their addresses were known represents a helpful step forward. The amendment would prevent overuse and abuse of the protection of anonymity. It also includes risk to children. There is clearly a need to protect children living in the same household whose safety may be at risk if details of the parent are included on the public register. I should be grateful if the Minister dealt with that. Non-registration prevents an individual not only from voting, but, under the provisions of the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000, from donating to a political party or referendum campaign. Given that parties must check that a donor is on the register, clear processes need to be in place so that they can verify and accept donations from electors who are ““anonymous””. Will the Minister confirm that parties can verify and accept donations from ““anonymous”” electors? There is a need for clear criteria for anonymity, rather than leaving it up to the personal opinion of the electoral registration officers, which could change from place to place and lead to inconsistency of application. The amendment would require written evidence from a Government or local authority body or the police to show that a risk exists. The bodies would confirm the existence of the risk. That would prevent anonymity being granted to people whose safety is not genuinely at risk. An interesting comparison is with the confidentiality orders in relation to company directors pursuant to section 723B(1) of the Companies Act 1985. An individual who is or proposes to become a director or secretary of a company and who considers that the availability for inspection by members of the public of particulars of his usual residential address creates, or is likely to create, a serious risk that he or a person who lives with him will be subjected to violence or intimidation, may make an application to the Secretary of State for a confidentiality order. Is it envisaged that the granting of anonymity under this clause will operate in a similar way, but with applications being made to the relevant registration officer rather than to the Secretary of State? Is the Minister not concerned about the inconsistency of application that might arise from this differing application? What exactly will be the threshold for the granting of anonymity? It seems an unfair expectation to place on registration officers that they should be able, alone, to determine safety risks associated with public registration. Perhaps giving electors the right to appeal the local registration officer’s decision to the Secretary of State would be a way forward. This, along with wider powers of consultation, would allow for consistency of application, while at the same time allowing appropriate determination on a case-by-case basis. Will the Minister look into this and provide reassurances that the clause will be tightened to ensure that it is not open to abuse, that registration officers will have sufficient support in making a decision on anonymity, and that application of this clause will be consistent between electoral registration officers? I understand that, once the electoral canvass has been received, the Representation of the People (England and Wales) (Amendment) Regulations 2001 place a duty on the head of a household to return the form with the names of those in the household, whether or not they are eligible to vote. Perhaps the Minister will clarify this point. In other words, there is a duty to register, albeit a duty involving the out-of-date notion of a head of household. However, this seems to be contradicted by proposed new section 9B(6) to the Representation of the People Act 1983, which is dealt with in clause 10, and which seems to contain a loophole whereby the duty to register could be avoided in the event of an unsuccessful application for anonymity. Might that not encourage spurious applications to be made in order to avoid being placed on the electoral roll? That is a loophole that our amendment would close, although subject, I would hope, to an appeal to the Secretary of State.