Electoral Administration Bill

My Lords, again, I thank the Minister for her reply on the amendment. I think that I am bound to repeat the two concerns about the register. The worry about individual registration from the Minister’s point of view is that it will reduce the number on the register because people will not register. My worry is that it will not take off the register people who are not entitled to be on it. Somewhere, there must be a middle road here where we can join hands to say that we have got it right. As things stand, the registration of a house in multiple occupation is left to the owner. Often, the question is: who is the owner and who does the owner think is in the property? I am sure that the noble Baroness will have experienced occasions when a house that could not conceivably house more than 10 people shows 40 people on the register. At least 20 of them should not be on the register and one wonders how they got there. There is more behind this than is being accepted by the Minister. For that reason, I shall not give up entirely and may well return to it at our final stage. However, for today’s purposes, I beg leave to withdraw the amendment. Amendment, by leave, withdrawn. Clause 13 [Registration: personal identifiers]: [Amendments Nos. 28 to 37 not moved.]