Representation of the People (England and Wales) (Amendment) (No. 2) Regulations 2006

rose to move, That the Grand Committee do report to the House that it has considered the Representation of the People (England and Wales) (Amendment) (No. 2) Regulations 2006 [36th Report from the Joint Committee]. The noble Baroness said: In speaking to these regulations, I shall also speak to the Service Voters’ Registration Period Order 2006 and the Review of Polling Districts and Polling Places (Parliamentary Elections) Regulations 2006, which appear subsequently on the Order Paper. As noble Lords will recall from our long and happy deliberations on the Electoral Administration Bill, we aim to tackle four key areas that we believe are at the core of a healthy democracy: improving access and engagement in the democratic process; extending openness and transparency in party financing; improving confidence in the electoral system; and maintaining professional delivery of elections. The Electoral Administration Act 2006 will be implemented, where possible, on a nationwide basis for the May 2007 elections. Let me take noble Lords through the regulations. Part 1 indicates that the majority of the regulations will come into effect on 1 January 2007 and apply to England and Wales only. Part 2 concerns anonymous registration. Again, noble Lords will recall our debates on these issues. Anonymous registration is for a person who believes that having their name and address on the register would put their safety or that of others in their household at risk. As I indicated in our discussions in Committee and on Report, it is not there to be used as an ex-directory system for someone who does not for whatever reason want their details published on the register. The Act allows a person to apply to be registered without their details being made public. In drafting the regulations, the Government consulted a variety of stakeholders—Victim Support, the Home Office, Scottish Women’s Aid and the Network for Surviving Stalking. This was to get their views on, for example, evidence that would be required to go with an application and who would require access to the record of anonymous entries. Through consultation—and I am grateful to those organisations for their support and advice—we were able to draft the regulations that are now before the Committee. There are strict criteria for anonymous registration. A person has to provide evidence such as an order of the types specified in the regulations. These are made under the Family Law Act 1996 or the Protection from Harassment Act 1997, and each has the purpose of protecting people from harassment or molestation. If a person does not have an order, they can apply using an attestation, which has to be signed by a senior officer from the organisations that are listed in the regulations, such as the chief constable of a police force. We did not want a registration officer to undertake qualitative evaluations as to why someone should have an anonymous entry, which is why we prescribe in the regulations the evidence and the forms of attestation that will be acceptable with an application.As a person’s anonymous entry terminates after12 months, a registration officer will send out a reminder, as set out in the regulations, saying to the person that they need to make a fresh application to remain on the anonymous register. The regulations also extend the current system of registration objections to empower the registration officer to remove an elector’s name from the electoral register if it becomes apparent, after the process of registration has been completed, that they should not have been registered. Previously, objections to a person’s registration could be lodged only before the application for registration was allowed, and a registration officer’s powers to remove an incorrect or out-of-date entry were limited. Noble Lords will recall that we debated that at great length. The regulations allow for any individual to object to another person’s registration at any time. An objection can also be made before or after a person’s registration. The Government feel that this change ensures that registration is more open to scrutiny and that the registers will be more accurate, which is something that I know the noble Baroness is particularly concerned about. An electoral registration officer has the power to remove an elector from the register if he or she determines that the elector is no longer resident or for other reasons has ceased to satisfy the conditions of entitlement to be registered. This power also extends to a person who has an anonymous entry. A separate list is kept of objections to entries on the register. The list contains the name and address of the objector and the name, address and elector number, if they are already on the register, of the person being objected to. It also contains particulars of the objection. In Part 3, the regulations allow a registration officer to make alterations to the electoral register to correct an error or to give effect to a court ruling up to 9 pm on polling day. Under the previous system, a person could have been disfranchised if a clerical error had been made that was only discovered on the day of the poll or within the five days preceding it. As errors are likely to come to light when a person goes to vote, this is a sensible amendment that focuses on the elector. Part 4 of the regulations gives effect to the changes introduced by the Electoral Administration Act 2006 to ballot papers. In particular, ballot papers will no longer need to be attached to a counterfoil. Instead, returning officers will need to record ballot paper numbers to be used at a parliamentary election on a corresponding number list, the form of which is prescribed in the regulations. Noble Lords will recall our discussions about the administrative burden of having to remove the counterfoils from the forms. Under Part 5, noble Lords inserted provisions into the Electoral Administration Act 2006 that provide for the collection and checking of personal identifiers for absent voters. These are designed to enhance the security of the postal voting system. Part 5 sets out in full the details of the new arrangements. Persons applying to vote by post or proxy are required to provide their signature and date of birth. At elections, postal voters must provide these identifiers when they cast their vote. The returning officer will take steps set out in the regulations to verify the personal identifiers before the ballot paper may be allowed to proceed to the count. Part 6 amends the arrangements for proxy vote applications that are being made as a consequence of provisions in the Electoral Administration Act 2006. They abolish any rule of common law that could be used to prevent persons with a mental impairment from voting and remove the restriction on mental health patients detained under civil powers from voting in person at polling stations, even if they are well enough to attend the polling station. Paragraph 94 of Schedule 1 to the Electoral Administration Act 2006 provides for the cancellation and removal of ballot papers under any prescribed circumstances. Part 7 of the regulations cover the procedure by which a cancelled postal ballot paper should be retrieved from a ballot box under prescribed circumstances. Part 8 of the regulations substitutes revised forms of official poll card to be sent to the elector or proxy voter and prescribes the new forms of official poll card to be sent to postal voters and postal proxy voters. Part 9 is made in consequence of the introduction of new Rule 31A in the parliamentary election rules requiring returning officers to record the return of postal ballots. Part 10 affects access to the records and lists that registration officers maintain of postal voters, proxy voters and proxy postal voters. The provisions work in conjunction with and mirror the framework that governs access to and supply of the full electoral register. The new arrangements take into account the decision in the Robertson case, which concerned the supply of the electoral register. The High Court found that the supply of the register for direct marketing purposes without giving individual electors the opportunity to object was in breach of data protection and human rights legislation. Part 11 introduces a new framework of regulations governing access to and the supply and inspection of the marked electoral register, postal voters list and other election documents. It broadly mirrors that which is already in place for the electoral register, and implements change to the processing of information from the electoral register and the offence for misuse of the electoral register. Part 12 sets out a number of miscellaneous amendments relating to postal voting and the conduct of elections, and a transitional provision about the anonymous registration process. On the Service Voters’ Registration Period Order 2006, noble Lords will recall that we wished to increase the length of the registration period on the electoral register for service personnel and their spouse or civil partner from one year to three years, where a service qualification has been completed. To allow for the minimum confusion in implementing the Act, this order will not be made until 18 December so that it can come into force with the other regulations on 1 January 2007. Finally, as regards the Review of Polling Districts and Polling Places (Parliamentary Elections) Regulations 2006, Sections 18A to 18E of the Representation of the People Act 1983, as amended by the Electoral Administration Act 2006, state that a local authority is required to keep the designation of polling places and polling districts within its area under review. Schedule A1 to the 1983 Act requires that regulations specify the manner in which representations made by a returning officer in connection with the review are to be published by a relevant authority, and specify the information that a relevant authority must publish on the completion of a review. These regulations aim to give greater transparency to the review process. I beg to move. Moved, That the Grand Committee do report to the House that it has considered the Representation of the People (England and Wales) (Amendment) (No. 2) Regulations 2006 [36th Report from the Joint Committee].—(Baroness Ashton of Upholland.)