Electoral Administration Bill

I thank the Minister for telling us that the thrust of the new clause on election observers tabled by the right hon. Member for Walsall, South (Mr. George), which we did not reach today, would be dealt with in another place. I also welcome the new section 6D in clause 31, which deals with observers at polling stations and counts. I pay tribute to Tim Sheehy, whom I first met through his work on democracy in southern Africa at the Catholic Institute for International Relations. He and his colleagues, who have done similar work in central America and elsewhere, have drawn attention to the inconsistency in the fact that we expect to go to other countries and see what goes on at polling stations, while registered observers have not been able to do the same in this country. I welcome a change that I consider right, proper and balanced. I pay tribute to my hon. Friend the Member for South Staffordshire (Sir Patrick Cormack), who joined the House after the general election some weeks after the rest of us. I also pay tribute to my hon. Friend the Member for Chichester (Mr. Tyrie), who persisted in pursuing an issue which, if I may be slightly partisan, I will describe as a scandal. The changes in the electoral registration requirements for service voters should not have been made, and I am glad that the position is to be put right. I hope that when I visit our service personnel around the world, they will all say, ““I know that I am registered, and I know that I can vote.””