Political Parties and Elections Bill

I am not going to comment on procedural matters in the other place. Clause 17 removes the requirement on candidates to provide their full address on election documents, including ballot papers, at UK parliamentary elections. This clause was inserted into the Bill following an amendment tabled by the honourable Member for New Forest East Dr Julian Lewis and accepted by the other place on Report. The clause provides that at a parliamentary election, should a candidate prefer that their full home address is not made public, the statement of persons nominated and the ballot paper at an election will instead identify the constituency within which their address is situated. Changing the requirement for the home addresses of candidates to appear on nomination and ballot papers represents a significant change to the electoral process. That is why the Government indicated last autumn, when an amendment was first tabled on this matter in the other place, that we could not simply lend our support to such an amendment. Instead, it was our firm view that we should hold a public consultation on the matter to test the strength of feeling on the issue. The Government issued a consultation paper on 26 November 2008 and made it clear that they had not formed a view that change was needed, but were consulting to test the arguments on both sides. From the 65 responses received to the consultation, it was clear that there are strongly held views both for and against changing the legislation. Broadly speaking, the majority of the politicians who responded and the Electoral Commission favoured change, while administrators, returning officers and the majority of the responses from the public did not. Those in favour argue that candidates and their families face a higher risk to their safety and security, which warrants a need for their home addresses to be removed from the public domain. As a result of the responses to the consultation and the importance of the issue, we took the view that the matter would be for the other place and not the Government to decide on. Hence, there was a free vote on the issue, which allowed those who were elected to make a decision on their behaviour during elections and on the information which should be made available to the public. We see our role here as facilitating a full debate on the issue. We had hoped that it was more appropriate for Report, and we are already committed to giving a free vote on the clause if, as we expect, there is a Division on the issue. The Government do not support the clause, we are simply facilitating a free vote by including it in the Bill. On that basis, I move that the clause stand part of the Bill.