Government of Wales Bill

I note the hon. Gentleman’s point and I leave Ministers to respond to it, as I am sure they will. To return to the Electoral Reform Society and its comments, I should first say that I believe that it is biased. It is hell-bent on ensuring democratic systems that are actually fair to the electorate and to candidates. In that sense, we can agree that its agenda is fairly transparent. Which one of us in the Chamber disagrees with its intent? Let us get away from the suggestion of partisanship because the Electoral Reform Society has a laudable record of acting in a non-partisan way in what it believes to be the best interests of democracy. As others have done, I will quote the Electoral Reform Society. It says:"““It has been almost universally agreed that there is little evidence to back up””" the Government’s"““claims.””" Indeed, in her submission to the Welsh Affairs Committee, Kay Jenkins, the head of office at the Electoral Commission, said:"““There is no evidence that the Clwyd West so-called problem has had any impact on voter participation . . . We have got a very extensive body of research on what makes people vote and not vote across Britain and particularly specifically in Wales, and it is on that basis that we say it is not an issue we could say has ever been raised with us””." It is not an issue that has even been raised with the Electoral Reform Society. I shall be very interested to hear the Government’s alternative evidence on that. We have already established that the Electoral Reform Society has quite clearly categorised itself as little short of obsessive about democracy in this country. One would imagine that it would act as a magnet for comments, but it did not receive a single piece of evidence on this matter. At the Welsh Affairs Committee, Dr. Roger Scully and Dr. Richard Wyn Jones gave specific evidence that has already been quoted. I shall not repeat it all except to highlight one crucial point:"““The total number of people who mentioned anything at all as a reason for not voting in 2003 in our sample was 2; that is out of more than 500 who said that they did not vote.””" I suggest therefore that we may not have worked out the answer to why turnout was, in many people’s view, depressingly low, but it is extremely unlikely that the finger of blame points at this particular constitutional circumstance in which an individual is able to stand as a constituency candidate and simultaneously on a list. It is true that the Welsh Affairs Committee was split on this issue. It voted 5:4 to back the Government’s stance but sadly—and exceptionally on this occasion—it was perfectly obvious that the vote split on party lines. My hon. Friend the Member for Ceredigion (Mark Williams) voted against the proposals in the Bill, as did the three Conservative Members. It is clear that the situation was, at least to those of us who observed it from the outside, motivated by party political interests.