Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Bill

Perhaps that is what should happen, but my point is that imposing a legislative responsibility on the Electoral Commission would put a burden on the Electoral Commission. That would be a tall order, although it would be a good contract in these days when there is competition. In the old days, a Member of Parliament got free postage from the Royal Mail. However, the Royal Mail now has competitors that will say, ““No, we want to do that job””. Therefore, the Electoral Commission will have to ensure that it is even-handed. My experience with the Electoral Commission was that, as Speaker, I had the duty of chairing the overseeing body known as the Speaker’s committee. One of our biggest worries—this is why I am concerned about bringing this into legislation—was that the commission wanted to bite off far more than it could chew. For example, although in the days that we have spent debating this Bill noble Lords have spoken with great passion about the fairness of the Boundary Commission’s appeals process, we previously had to stop Ministers handing over responsibility for the Boundary Commission to the Electoral Commission, as desired by its then chairman, Mr Younger. I had to say to Ministers, including the Secretary of State for Scotland, ““Look, they cannot cope with that work””. The commission wanted to provide seminars to train electoral officers that would have involved using a training pack that was copyrighted by an outside organisation, so the cost to taxpayers would have been quite substantial. In other words, the Electoral Commission’s enthusiasm had to be curbed. If the amendment is included in the legislation so that the Electoral Commission ““must”” do these things, the commission would have the responsibility not only for printing the leaflet and worrying about whether it might be subject to a legal challenge but for distributing the leaflet. Whether free post is given by the Royal Mail or any other organisation, the distributor will want to be paid for delivering the leaflets. Between now and 1 May, the Government would have to find out from the Electoral Commission what the bill would be. If the Government were not prepared to pay that bill, that would be another terrible strain on the Electoral Commission. Given all its responsibilities—and all those that it has been curbed from taking on—I do not think the Electoral Commission could cope with publishing and distributing the leaflet. Although the noble Lord, Lord Lipsey, has pointed out that everyone gets a polling card, the point about that is that the returning officer—usually, the chief executive or legal officer of the local authority—has a responsibility for ensuring that the polling card is put through the door. Obviously, every Member of Parliament gets a different polling card that is distributed by different returning officers. The point is that the burden of delivering polling cards is spread across every local authority in the United Kingdom. If we consolidate the distribution of the leaflet so that it becomes the responsibility of one organisation, I do not think that the organisation will be able to cope. The amendment of the noble Lord, Lord Rooker, would allow the Electoral Commission to provide information by other means. Instead of a leaflet, the famous laptops that young people use could provide the information, or it could be by means of local or national radio or television. That is my worry about the amendment.