Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Bill

My Lords, from these Benches we, too, are immensely grateful for the way the noble Lord, Lord Low, moved his amendments and I am sorry he had to spend so long waiting and listening to the rest of us before he got to them. Perhaps I may say at the outset that the Government enormously welcome the principles behind these amendments. I shall give him a very full reply and I hope that he will consider it before Report. Similar amendments were debated in the other place and the Government stated their commitment to ensuring that everybody has an equal opportunity to cast their votes in this referendum. It is right and important that every effort is made to ensure that all individuals, with or without disabilities, are able to exercise their democratic rights. The Bill already contains significant provisions to ensure that voting is fair for all. This includes those voters with disabilities. Existing anti-discrimination legislation also already imposes duties on public authorities which are directly targeted at involvement in public life. Specifically, the Disability Discrimination Act 2005 was amended to include a duty on public authorities to promote the equality of individuals with disabilities. Ensuring that ballot papers and polling stations are accessible to all is already a duty that counting officers will need to take forward. For the purposes of the referendum, the chief counting officer will also be able to give directions to counting officers on how they discharge these functions. The Government have discussed aspects of the Bill with Scope, which does important work in directly supporting people with disabilities and whose reports are taken very seriously by government. We have already made some changes to the ballot papers to reflect its suggestions and have given the chief counting officer power to modify the voter-facing forms to make them easier to use and understand. However, as has been debated in the other place, the Government are not convinced that the amendments that have been tabled on this issue are the best way of achieving the commendable aims that underlie them. In many instances, the chief counting officer and regional counting officers will already have the power to do what the amendments propose. Amendments 103 to 106 would turn these powers into obligations, which would not add anything to the commission's available options and may be actively damaging. If we take away the commission's discretion to decide when it needs to issue, for example, directions or guidance on disability issues, the commission may have to do work when its efforts could more usefully be directed elsewhere. That might impinge on the commission's activities in other areas. I know that the commission treats disability issues very seriously and is mindful that it is important to ensure ease of access where possible but, given its other commitments in the referendum, we need to give the commission the room to judge what action is necessary to support the aims of these amendments. The commission provided some very helpful briefing on this matter when the same subject was raised in the other place. The briefing highlighted that, "““We take seriously our duties as a public body under equality legislation, including the Disability Discrimination Act and the ""Equality Act 2010 (due to come into force in April 2011), to ensure, among other things, that the information provided is accessible and available in alternative formats””." The chief counting officer will issue guidance and directions to RCOs and COs that will cover their duties in relation to accessibility and disabled voters under relevant equality and electoral legislation. These include: ensuring that polling stations meet the accessibility requirements of the DDA; ensuring that information, forms and notices relating to the voting process are available in alternative, accessible formats; making available enlarged sample versions of the ballot paper in polling stations; and providing a tactile voting device in each polling station to enable voters with visual impairments to vote. The commission points out that, as at other elections in the UK, voters who have a disability may ask polling station staff for assistance with voting or may take someone with them to the polling station to help them cast their vote and that people voting by post may ask someone to help them with the process of completing their ballot paper and postal voting statement. The commission will continue to work with Mencap, the RNIB, Scope and other representative and advocacy organisations to ensure the referendum that is managed and delivered in a way that ensures that all electors are able to participate effectively. The way in which the obligations in these amendments will interact with the very important legal obligations that are already imposed by the Disabilities Discrimination Act and the Equality Act is also a cause for concern. Indeed, these amendments may add relatively little in a substantive sense. If the aim is to ensure that the rights of disabled voters are protected, surely that is best served by clarity of understanding about what is required by law. It would be very unfortunate if a multiplicity of obligations and a confused understanding of how they interacted stood in the way of precisely that sort of clarity, but I fear that that is one potentially serious effect of accepting these amendments. The Government welcome the debate prompted by these amendments and encourage further dialogue, and I offer any further dialogue that the noble Lord would like, so that it may be brought to bear not on this poll alone, but on the current electoral legislative framework to identify whether improvements can be made in the round. The Government will keep under review ways in which the democratic process can be enhanced, and of course we welcome the views of Scope, the Electoral Commission and members of this House in that debate. The aim of enhancing equal opportunity for all voters is admirable and I strongly support it, but the Government are not persuaded that amending this Bill in this way is the right way to achieve these important aims. I have spoken at some length, as I promised I would, and I hope that the noble Lord will find some encouragement in my words. I hope also that he will feel able to withdraw his amendment.