Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Bill

My Lords, I will move and speak to the amendments in this group on behalf of my noble friend Lord Rooker. There are three of them, two of which seek to deal with the chaos at the end of the general election. On page 32, paragraph 13(1) of Schedule 2 to the Bill, ““Rules for the Conduct of the Referendum””, provides that: "““The counting officer must provide a sufficient number of polling stations and, subject to the following provisions of this rule, must allot the electors to the polling stations in whatever manner the officer thinks most convenient””." My noble friend Lord Rooker proposes that that be amended so that, "““no polling station shall be allocated more than 1050 electors””." If you put a limit on the number of electors sent to a polling station, you reduce the chance of there being the chaos that there was at the previous general election. The next amendment in this group is Amendment 120. At page 35 of the Bill, paragraph 17(1) says: "““The counting officer must provide each presiding officer with however many ballot boxes and ballot papers the counting officer thinks are necessary””." My noble friend Lord Rooker proposes amending that to ensure that the counting officer in every ballot station has as many ballot papers as there are electors allocated to that polling station. That is sensible because it means that they cannot run out of ballot papers. Again, it is a way of reducing chaos. The final amendment in this group is Amendment 121. On page 35—I know all noble Lords are following this in their own copies of the Bill because it is so completely fascinating—sub-paragraph (7) says: "““In every compartment of every polling station there must be exhibited the notice—""‘Mark one box only. Put no other mark on the ballot paper, or your vote may not be counted’””." If noble Lords turn to page 61, they will see that, instead of ““Mark one box only””, the wording in the second paragraph of the notice given there is: "““Vote in one box only””." If noble Lords go to page 67, line 25, they will see the phrase: "““Vote in ONE box only. Do not put any other mark on the ballot paper””." If noble Lords go to page 74, they will see in paragraph 2: "““Vote in one box only. Put no other mark on the ballot paper””." My noble friend Lord Rooker says that ““Mark one box only”” and, "““Vote in one box only””," say the same thing; that it is confusing to have different phrases on different notices; and that we should use the same phrase, "““Vote in one box only””," right across the notices given to electors. That seems extremely sensible, so his amendment, which affects page 35, rule 17(7), is to take out the words ““Mark one box only”” and put in the words "““Vote in one box only””," because that is the phrase used everywhere else. It is difficult to imagine—though I am quite sure that the noble and learned Lord will have some clever answer for this—why different phrases were used. The first two amendments avoid the chaos. The third amendment—I am not sure why it is in this group, but it is easy to deal with in this group—is to ensure consistency in the instructions given to electors. I beg to move.