Scottish Parliament (Candidates) Bill [HL]

My Lords, as usual, my noble friend has made an extremely good point, which no doubt the noble Lord, Lord Foulkes, will wish to take up when he replies. It also flies against what the Minister told us in 1998—that there would be no fundamental difference between list MSPs and those directly elected. The Arbuthnott commission was set up by the Secretary of State to review Scotland’s electoral boundaries and voting systems after he had been lobbied on those issues, including dual candidacy, by his colleagues in another place. It reported:"““The Commission believes that preventing dual candidacy would be undemocratic and agrees that it would place ‘an unnecessary restriction on the democratic rights of . . . candidates, parties and . . . electors’””." If noble Lords are tempted towards a ban on dual candidacy, despite the Arbuthnott recommendations, they should also look at the warnings that have been made by the Electoral Commission and the Electoral Reform Society. First, it is likely that a ban would undermine the quality of constituency contests and favour the incumbent MSP—most of whom are, of course, Labour, which is why the noble Lord, Lord Maclennan of Rogart, said that the Bill’s underlying motive is entirely partisan. The Electoral Reform Society found no evidence of a desire from the public to change the system, and to ban dual candidacy would be to go very much against the international norm for this electoral system. I understand that, with the exception of a couple of provinces of Canada, which are only contemplating the system, every other country using AMS permits dual candidacy; there is even an example of it being a required feature of the system. The Electoral Commission concludes that, in the light of international norms,"““we would caution that there should be compelling reasons for introducing a change to an electoral process that is as yet untested””." When the Government launched their proposals for Scottish devolution, they said that they wanted a new system of politics for Scotland. I think that they have probably achieved that, and it now seems rather churlish for the devolution enthusiasts on the Labour Benches to try to change it after the event. So I hope that the noble Lord will not pursue his Bill this afternoon—if he begs leave to withdraw it, I will not oppose him.