Electoral Administration Bill

My Lords, the amendment raises issues that are very much at the heart of the fundamental purpose of the Bill—to minimise fears of electoral fraud. Today we hear that there are no fewer than eight petitions in the High Court alleging electoral fraud in the recent local elections. There are, of course, allegations of fraud in many other areas, and we do not know the scale of it. It is an issue of ongoing concern, which will not end with consideration of the Bill. The Bill contains many provisions to deal with the potential for, and perception of, fraud, and to increase confidence in the electoral process, which have been welcomed on all sides of the House. Some welcome shifts have taken place on how we might deal with the issue in future. I very much welcome the fact that the noble Baroness, Lady Hanham, is no longer pursuing national insurance numbers being a requirement for electoral registration. For me that was a step too far in trying to clamp down on fraud. I also welcome the fact that the noble Baroness, Lady Ashton, with helpful encouragement from the noble Lord, Lord Elder, has accepted that the date of birth should be required on postal vote applications. However, I am still not confident that the Bill will do as much as it should to prevent, deter and help to detect fraud in arrangements for postal voting. The amendment requires a signature and date of birth for everyone going onto the voting register. Indeed, there can be few legal forms that entitle you to do something and involve a legal requirement that you have to complete which do not require a signature. It is suggested that it would be difficult to do this on the form. But many of us with a close interest in the electoral process who are used to people filling in forms, including the form on which you apply to vote by post, do not think that it would be so difficult to require a signature on the form. During the Bill’s passage the Government have accepted that a signature and a date of birth should be required on a form on which you apply for a postal vote, so how can it be so difficult to suggest that someone should provide a signature and a date of birth to be included on the electoral register? Recently I looked at my own voter registration form from the London borough of Lambeth. It is a clear example of a form where any change to the people listed on it requires a signature and a date of birth. It is not a complicated form that is difficult to complete. Certainly, it is easier than filling in a national lottery ticket, which I have never succeeded in understanding or filling in myself. There are, of course, remedies for any problems with people failing to return the registration form because it requires a signature and a date of birth. Some of those remedies are already in the Bill and are very much welcomed. Door to door canvassing constitutes a large part of addressing problems of low electoral registration. A very significant reason for the decline in the quality of our electoral register over the past 20 years or so is because local authorities have cut back in that area as they felt squeezed and obliged to deal with other matters. There is still great disquiet in this country about the potential for electoral fraud. That has grown significantly over the past few years, since the point at which we granted an automatic entitlement to vote by post but failed to provide proper safeguards at the same time. We can do many things in the Bill to help put that right, but we could go further and do better on the issue. There remains for some noble Lords the need for independent advice on this issue that does not come from any partisan source. I suggest that the only appropriate source of advice on something such as this is the Electoral Commission, with which we may agree or disagree on occasions. I asked it again today to state its position on this issue. It told me this morning:"““The Commission remains committed to the principle of individual registration and welcomes the intention of amendments to introduce personal identifier requirements at registration. The Commission continues to believe that a system of individual registration would allow voters to participate with confidence in the electoral process””." So do I.