Electoral Administration Bill

My hon. Friend is exactly right and that is exactly why we have included this clause in the Bill. Separately from the Bill, through secondary legislation in due course, we propose to move the closing date for applying for a postal vote back from six days prior to an election, which is the current provision, to 11 days prior. The change is intended to give administrators more time to perform checks on the veracity of applications and relieve the administrative burden on them in the period before polling day. It has been argued that moving to an 11-day deadline for both registration and postal vote applications might create an unmanageable spike in administrators’ work loads. I believe that that view is incorrect. The proposed change to the deadline for postal vote applications will give administrators significantly more time to consider and process applications. It will not be the case that they must all be processed en masse on the day of the deadline. After all, until nominations have closed, it will not be possible to print ballot papers and begin to post them out. The combination of deadlines should therefore pose no significant administrative problems. Synchronisation will make the system clearer for electors. I fear that it will never be very clear, but at least it will be a bit clearer. Local authorities and the Electoral Commission will be able to publicise a single deadline for people to meet to secure their vote by registering and applying for a postal vote. That should make the process easier to understand and reduce the likelihood of a person being disfranchised due to either not registering or not applying for a postal vote. I am happy to be able to reassure those Members who have expressed concern that the requirement to alter registers five days before the day of poll might create a burden on administrators over the weekend, as polling day is traditionally a Thursday. Sections 13B and 119 of the Representation of the People Act 1983 provide that, when we refer to a period of days of less than seven in this part of the Bill, we refer to working days. There is no possibility, therefore, of anything happening on a Saturday night. As I mentioned earlier, amendment No. 27 also affects clerical errors. Clause 11 gives effect to an Electoral Commission recommendation to move the final date for correcting errors such as a misspelled entry on the register or an accidental omission to the day of poll. The amendment would have the effect of retaining the status quo of only allowing corrections up to five days prior to polling day. That is a considerable problem. Clerical errors can mean that quite large numbers of people cannot vote and that does not make sense. Given that clerical errors are most likely to come to light on polling day, when a person attempts to vote, the Government believe that it is right to allow registration officers to correct errors and allow a person to cast a ballot. As with moving the registration deadline, there can be no question of this change opening the door to fraud. Firstly, it is not possible for a person purposefully to have their entry created incorrectly. Secondly, if the registration officer cannot determine that an error has been made—for example, by checking the information held on file—he is under no obligation to make the amendment. Freepost will not be affected. I ask the hon. Gentleman to withdraw the amendment.