Electoral Administration Bill

My Lords, I thank the Minister for her passionate reply—I was going to say, ““by her standards””, but I do not mean that, because she is often very passionate and direct. I fully understand what she is saying. I also partially understand the concerns raised by the noble Lord, Lord Campbell-Savours, who helped a lot during the passage of the Bill. My concerns, which, I understand, are shared by the noble Lord, Lord Rennard, relate to the fact that fraud appears to be becoming more widespread. There seem to be more opportunities for people to personate in polling stations and to get themselves on the register. Regarding the extension of what we have already agreed to, across the piece in this House, we have all come to the same conclusion on the postal vote. As the noble Baroness said, the position has moved very substantially from where the Bill started. We have chopped out four clauses, which were all pretty large, reducing the Bill by about six pages. To be fair, we touched on the wider aspects of a universal requirement for identifiers. That is why I come back to the issue today. I hear what the Minister says and I hear her plea not to press the amendment. I am afraid that I shall deny her that. On Question, Whether the said amendment (No. 4) shall be agreed to? Their Lordships divided: Contents, 167; Not-Contents, 144. Clause 30 [Replacement of counterfoils]: