Political Parties and Elections Bill

I have a great deal of sympathy with this amendment. I do not have any sympathy with the concept of opting in because I think that it would be impractical, it will not happen and hardly anyone would take any notice of it. I say that because people do not understand what the opting-out process is. Opting in is even more difficult and therefore is not an option. I opposed the concept when we introduced it a long time ago. It is wrong to ask people to register and then sell the registers for commercial purposes. People have said to me that they are reluctant to put their names on the register, not knowing that they can opt out, because they do not believe that others should have access to it. It should be only for the purposes for which the electoral register has been established; that is, the purpose of elections. So I have sympathy with the amendment, but not with the opting in bit.