Electoral Administration Bill

moved Amendment No. 14:"After Clause 9, insert the following new clause—" ““PROVISIONS AS TO MEMBERS OF FORCES AND SERVICE VOTERS (1)   Section 59 of the 1983 Act (supplemental provisions as to members of forces and service voters) is amended in accordance with subsection (2). (2)   For subsection (3) substitute— ““(3)   Arrangements shall be made by the appropriate government department for securing that (so far as circumstances permit) every person having a service qualification by virtue of paragraph (a) or (b) of section 14(1) shall— (a)   have an effective opportunity of exercising from time to time as occasion may require the rights conferred on him by this Act in relation to registering to vote, and in relation to voting in person, by post or by proxy; (b)   receive such instructions as to the effect of this Act and any regulations made under it, and such other assistance, as may be reasonably sufficient in connection with the exercise by him and any wife of his or, as the case may be, by her and any husband of hers, or by any civil partner, of any rights conferred on them as mentioned above; and (c)   have a record maintained by the appropriate government department of his or her electoral registration option updated on an annual basis.”””” The noble Lord said: My Lords, it is with both surprise and regret that I find myself moving this amendment. I had expected that, by now, the Government would have had a well considered new clause on service voters. That is certainly what we had been led to expect during the past year. I have spoken of the problems of registration and voting for members of the Armed Forces and their partners on many occasions. Following the problems during the last general election, I drew your Lordships’ attention to the matter in a debate on the electoral system on 26 May 2005. I then explained how changes to electoral systems in 2001 had led to a decline in registration of service voters. Whereas in the past registration had lasted until the service voter notified a change in circumstances, under the new legislation, annual registration was required in line with civilian practice. The itinerant lifestyle of the Armed Forces made that difficult in practice and, anyway, the majority of those in the services were unaware of the implications of the change. I also drew attention to the effect of the extension to the postal voting system. Even those in the services who register continue to have a problem with obtaining postal ballot forms in time to complete and return them when they are serving overseas. Again, the chance to vote is lost if they have not appointed a suitable person as a proxy. I have been in many meetings with the Electoral Commission, the Department for Constitutional Affairs, the Ministry of Defence, electoral registration officers and unofficial representatives of the services during the past year. Everyone has said that they recognise the problems and that something must be done. While she was responsible in this area, Harriet Harman said that there was to be ““zero tolerance”” over this issue. That reflected the Prime Minister’s earlier statement on the Jeremy Vine BBC Radio 2 show on 16 April 2005 that he would sort the problem out. I have raised the issue at Second Reading and in Committee. I take this opportunity to thank the Minister for her support at every stage. I have consulted her Bill team, who have also been extremely helpful. Yet, here we are at Report. The Minister has indicated that there remain some problems with both my amendment and Amendment No. 15 in this group, which is in the name of the noble Baroness, Lady Hanham, which specifically considers ways to strengthen the registration system and has my support. We are more than a year on from the last general election. More than 250,000 voters—those in the Armed Forces and their partners—have problems in registering and, subsequently, voting. Problems have continued in the recent local elections. In answer to my Written Question, the noble Baroness told me on 4 May that the only new action that had been taken to facilitate voting for those deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq was to print some more leaflets. We might have expected some special postal arrangements as an interim measure. Also, the key targets set out for British forces post offices were announced in a Written Statement on 9 May this year. That was a missed opportunity to place a duty for speedy transmission of electoral communications. As I was coming into the Chamber this afternoon, I learnt of postal ballot forms arriving in Iraq on 4 May—the very day of the election. There was no chance of their getting back in time for the count. So we have not made much progress. The Ministry of Defence did a survey on service voting as it had promised to do. The results have been available to it since March, but in answer to my questions, I am told that they are still being analysed, so we do not have the benefit of them. My amendment would put the onus on the Ministry of Defence to manage this problem. Only it knows where all its personnel are located, both permanently and temporarily on deployment. Only the Ministry of Defence has the logistics to ensure that, once registered, its personnel can get voting papers to and from electoral registration officers in time for their vote to count. Only the Ministry of Defence can monitor the success of our efforts. The three strands of the amendment put the onus on the MoD for making registration easier, making voting possible and monitoring the effectiveness of the system. I was pleased to see that the Electoral Commission, in its helpful notes to today’s debate, has supported my amendment and stated that whatever we do about registration, the need for indexing—as I have called it—to monitor effectiveness will be an important element of it. Deployed service is much more frequent now than it was in the past. We should remember also that service men and women who do not go on the register and are stationed overseas have no Member of Parliament whom they can call their own when they are in difficulty. This lack of government progress in an area where there is cross-party agreement, support from the Electoral Commission and a clear need for action is a puzzle to me. I hope that the Minister is now ready to accept these amendments. I beg to move.