Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Bill

My Lords, I am grateful to be able to move Amendment 112A, which is grouped with Amendments 112B and 112C. Amendments 112A and 112B are to some extent probing amendments, while Amendment 112C goes a bit further than that. The first two refer to the publication of the notice of the referendum and the notice of poll. They would change the publication of the notice of the referendum from not later than the 25th day before the day of the referendum to not later than the 30th day and the notice of poll from not later than the 15th day to not later than the 20th day. The idea of this is that in a number of elections recently the elbow room between the publication of the notice and the notice of call and the actual referendum itself has not given enough time for the issue of postal ballots or the return of postal ballots and all the other procedures in between that need to take place. Part of this is caused by the postal service being no longer quite as fast as it used to be, when we used to get guaranteed delivery of first-class letters the next day, and partly because the administration is becoming much more complicated. The administration in this case, particularly Scotland and Wales, will be even more complicated because for postal ballots there will be three ballot papers sent to some, two to others and one to others. It is a very complicated exercise which has to be carried out in a limited period of time. Before the noble Lord, Lord Rennard, jumps up and says that this only deals with the referendum and that there are elections as well, let me say that I fully understand that consequential amendments will be required in relation to that if we agree Amendments 112A and 112B. But more elbow room needs to be given. I am sure the noble Lord, Lord Rennard, having been involved in so many elections, my noble friend Lord Collins, who masterminded elections for a number of years, and others who have been involved in elections will know that that timetable has created some problems for those involved in the practical operation of elections and referenda. Amendment 112C would change the polling hours, currently 7 am to 10 pm, to 6 am to 11 pm. I think that we should do everything possible to make it easier for people to vote. Extending the arrangements for postal voting has been particularly helpful. The fact that you no longer have to prove that you are incapacitated to get a postal vote and that people on holidays can get postal votes has made it easier for such people to vote. I would like to see us move towards a situation where voting took place at weekends so that you did not have to rush to do so on a working day between 7 am and 10 pm. If you could vote on either a Saturday or a Sunday, that would take account of religious objections to voting only on a Sunday and would make it much easier for people to cast their vote. As I said to the noble Lord, Lord Rennard, if that were agreed for the referendum, there would be consequential amendments in relation to the election. I have accepted that I cannot change the dates to Saturday and Sunday. However, I have been more modest and suggested an hour earlier in the morning and an hour later at night. We were talking earlier about people in Sheffield and elsewhere turning up at 10 pm and not being able to vote at the last election, and this proposal is one way of resolving that. It gives a bit more time for people to vote in the complicated election and referendum situation that we are going to have. It also takes into account different working patterns. Some people find it difficult to vote between 7 am and 10 pm, and anything that makes it easier for them to do so will be helpful. There are people who start work at 7 am and, for their own reasons, may not be able to get to the polling station by 10 pm. There are people whose life patterns and activities have changed. There are some people who are doing two jobs who will find it difficult. This just makes it that little bit easier for people to get to vote and anything that helps in that direction should be encouraged.