Fixed-term Parliaments Bill

My Lords, I thank my noble friend Lord Cormack and the noble Lord, Lord Howarth, for tabling the amendments and giving me an opportunity to update the Committee further to what I said on the Second Reading. My noble friend Lord Cormack asked the Government to think carefully about this and I confirm that we have done so. As was indicated from the evidence given by my honourable friend Mr Mark Harper to the Constitution Select Committee, this is an issue that we have considered and on which we have been in consultation. I have much sympathy for the points that have been made and the underlying purpose of the amendments in trying to separate out the dates of the 2015 United Kingdom general election and the general elections to the Scottish Parliament, the National Assembly for Wales and the Northern Ireland Assembly. As has been indicated, it is not solely as a result of the Bill that a conglomeration—if that is the right word—of elections could happen. Indeed, it would happen only once every 20 years but it so happens that the first time would be in 2015. The Bill has given advance warning. Clearly under the present system, towards the end of the five years for which this Parliament was elected, a decision could have been taken to have an election on 7 May 2015 and there would not have been the opportunity to have the same kind of consideration and consultation that we have had. One reason why the Government would not favour the proposal in the amendment tabled by the noble Lord, Lord Howarth, is that all three devolved assemblies will not always hold their elections on the same day. I think that it has always happened to date that the Welsh Assembly and the Scottish Parliament have held their elections on the same day, but the Northern Ireland Assembly has not always done so. I can check but I understand that this coming May is perhaps the first time that all three have coincided on the one day. I also take the point made by the noble Lord, Lord Empey, that two months may not be a sufficient gap between the elections, if indeed the purpose of separation is to ensure that one is not overshadowed by the other. Apart from the stresses and strains that two months might put on those who would be in permanent campaign mode, it might be difficult even then to disentangle the relevant issues as to which was devolved and which was reserved to the Westminster Parliament. At Second Reading, I updated your Lordships' House on the discussions that we had been engaged in with the Presiding Officers of the Scottish Parliament and the Welsh Assembly. I will deal later with the position with regard to Northern Ireland. As part of those discussions, which have been ongoing since last year, my honourable friend Mr Mark Harper wrote to the Presiding Officers on 17 February proposing that if the Scottish Parliament or the Welsh Assembly passed a resolution with the support of at least two-thirds of all Members agreeing that the 2015 Scottish Parliament or Welsh Assembly general elections should be moved up to one year earlier or later—that is to a date between the first Thursday in May 2014 and the first Thursday in May 2016—the Government would table an amendment to this Bill which would set the dates of the elections on a one-off basis. Copies of these letters are in the Library. In that regard, I say to my noble friend Lord Cormack that it is not a question of the Scottish Parliament extending its own life. It cannot do that. The Presiding Officer has a very limited power at the moment to change the date of the general election for the Scottish Parliament by, I think, one month either way. It will not be the Scottish Parliament prolonging its own life. It will require primary legislation, and we propose to do it through an amendment to this Bill. I am pleased to inform your Lordships’ House that the Scottish Parliament passed a unanimous motion on 3 March confirming that it wished the United Kingdom Government to bring forward a provision to defer the 2015 general election to 5 May 2016. I understand that a similar motion is being prepared in the Welsh Assembly, although we have yet to hear whether that has been tabled. With the dissolution of the Welsh Assembly looming, one awaits the outcome. As I previously outlined to your Lordships’ House, in line with the proposal put to the Scottish Parliament and the Welsh Assembly, and subject to a motion being passed in Cardiff, we will bring forward an amendment to provide that the general elections to the Scottish Parliament and the Welsh Assembly scheduled for May 2015 will be varied to the dates specified in the motions passed by the Scottish Parliament and the Welsh Assembly—in the case of the Scottish Parliament, to 5 May 2016. This will ensure that the two sets of elections do not coincide on the same day in 2015. Subject to these amendments being accepted, in the longer term we will need to carry out a detailed assessment of what the implications would be of the two sets of elections coinciding at a later date. In the light of this assessment, we would consider whether to conduct a public consultation in Scotland and Wales on whether the devolved institutions there should permanently be extended to five-year terms. That is not for consideration now. It would be something we would wish to consider further down the line. I confirm that it would be our intention to bring forward an amendment in Committee—certainly in the case of Scotland because the Scottish Parliament has passed the resolution, and we will wait to see what Wales will do—so that those who go to the polls on 5 May this year know the length of the Parliament which they are electing.