Electoral Administration Bill

My Lords, I thank both the Minister and the noble Lord, Lord Garden, for what they said. I also thank the Minister for her explanation of the package, which she has described as a package that the MoD is putting together to encourage the registration of service personnel. But it is still only an encouragement; it is not a requirement or a duty. It may all work out perfectly wonderfully, and the noble Lord, Lord Garden, may be correct that everything in the legislation will do what he and I have been trying to achieve in the past few weeks, but I am afraid that I am still not convinced that that is so. I said in my opening remarks that there is a requirement on a householder. Noble Lords may not see the direct correlation, but a householder is required to register all the people who live in their house. It seems to me that the Ministry of Defence is very much in that position. It is the householder and knows who it has under its roof. It knows where those people are—at least, I hope it does. It is meant to know where they are, and it is meant to ensure that they have the opportunity and the rights that they should have. I do not think the Minister will be surprised by my seeking to divide on this; it comes from no sense of animosity, because I do think we have moved an enormously long way, but if I could secure the last bit of this, I think we would have the perfect amendment for the perfect result that we have all been looking for. I seek to test the opinion of the House. On Question, Whether the said amendment (No. 1) shall be agreed to? Their Lordships divided: Contents, 116; Not-Contents, 203.