To some extent my noble friend anticipates me. I was thinking not just of that example. There will be a number of possibilities here of problems on the ground, and there will be either legal challenges or else what we had because of previous attempts to legislate in a rush in areas such as this: confusion, uncertainty and alienated electors who feel unable to vote in certain circumstances. There will be big problems. The point that my noble friend has just made highlights a classic example of them. As I said, there may well be legal challenges. I am sure the Minister will say, understandably, that in that case the courts will decide the matter because that is their role. However, he has to accept that because this Bill is driven by a particular timetable, that timetable may not be met unless the Government ignore the courts’ decisions. I hope that the Government are not prepared to go down that road.
I simply say at this stage that if you put forward a clause such as this, the duty on the Government to look at it in considerable detail is important. I know that Members opposite have sometimes grumbled about time and, dare I say, even got paranoid about it. However, I had better not use that word after the confusion in the previous exchanges, which I assume did not apply to me, although I shall have to read Hansard to make sure. There is a genuine problem, and it is not something that can be just airbrushed out.
The Minister has given considerable thought to this and, to be fair to him, he has responded in a much more constructive way than the Government have done on some occasions on this Bill. I welcome that, but he must know, as I do, that the Boundary Commission and the Electoral Commission will have problems with this. I am confident from my own contacts—noble Lords know that I am one of the political advisers to the Electoral Commission—that those bodies will deal with the problems, because they are actually effective and good. However, you are up against a time deadline, where just a few weeks here and a few days there can make an awful lot of difference, and you are up against the sort of legal challenges that might emerge. On matters such as Boundary Commission reviews, they really do.
I asked my previous question on Northern Ireland precisely because I know, from past experience, that these matters can be incredibly contentious. I see the noble Lord, Lord King, sitting there. He will know that, too. Although Northern Ireland is a special case that we do not need to involve in this general debate, it would be unwise to assume, particularly given the nature of the new boundaries that are being drawn up, that there will not be challenges of some type.
The Government will also find themselves in difficulty with their arguments about the big society, a concept that has been around for some considerable time. I hear many people saying, ““We are doing that already””. However, if you then bring in a system that overrides local communities in a number of different ways, you will invite the local communities to challenge it; and if they get legal representation, they might well take such cases to court.
I hope even at this late stage that when the Minister takes this clause away he will look at it, bear in mind many of our debates on it and make sure that the Boundary Commission and Electoral Commission will be able to deliver on this without having to face sudden legal challenges or problems on the ground that have not been anticipated by the Government.
Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Bill
Proceeding contribution from
Lord Soley
(Labour)
in the House of Lords on Wednesday, 12 January 2011.
It occurred during Debate on bills on Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Bill.
Type
Proceeding contribution
Reference
723 c1519-20 
Session
2010-12
Chamber / Committee
House of Lords chamber
Subjects
Librarians' tools
Timestamp
2023-12-15 14:06:22 +0000
URI
http://data.parliament.uk/pimsdata/hansard/CONTRIBUTION_700004
In Indexing
http://indexing.parliament.uk/Content/Edit/1?uri=http://data.parliament.uk/pimsdata/hansard/CONTRIBUTION_700004
In Solr
https://search.parliament.uk/claw/solr/?id=http://data.parliament.uk/pimsdata/hansard/CONTRIBUTION_700004