I want to make a few observations on the amendment tabled by my hon. Friend and constituency neighbour the Member for North East Somerset (Jacob Rees-Mogg), and on some of the clauses in this group.
My first observation relates to the number of places at which people can sign the petition. It seems to me completely impossible to equate the notion of fair access across the country with setting a maximum of four places for constituents such as mine, as my hon. Friend correctly said. It takes me about an hour and a quarter to drive from one end of my constituency to the other. Were there very few places, that would effectively disfranchise those who wish to attend a place of signing in person from being able to do so. Obviously, such an issue does not apply in urban or suburban constituencies, but it certainly does in the wide open spaces of rural constituencies, some of which are represented in the Chamber this evening.
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The hon. Members for Caerphilly (Wayne David) and for North Durham (Mr Jones) mentioned those constituencies that contain islands. Obviously, it is even more difficult to get from one island to another to place one’s name on a petition. For the sake of equity, the availability and the access of these places for petitioning need to be roughly the same for different categories of electors in different parts of the country. That will not happen if we have a maximum of four places in a very large rural constituency. There is also a common misapprehension in this place that we all have access to public transport—I am talking about our electors who do not own or have access to private cars. I keep having to remind people that in my village we have not one bus an hour or one bus every five minutes, but one bus a week. If someone catches that bus, but does not catch it back again, they are stuck and they will not return home for some time. They have to make sure that they take a sleeping bag with them or have access to a hotel. So let us bear in mind the different geography of the country.
There is also a political issue here. If we have a limited number of physical places where people can sign these petitions, where those places are situated may affect the outcome of the petition. The hon. Member for North Down (Lady Hermon) will probably agree that there are some Northern Ireland constituencies where it would matter a great deal where the place was that someone had to go to sign the petition. But that is generally true of many constituencies. Hard as it is to believe, there are areas that will be broadly supportive of a Member of Parliament, and some that will be less broadly supportive. There is an outcome issue that needs to be considered. I hope that the Minister will take that away and look at it again to see whether a better solution can be found.
I was slightly alarmed by the laissez-faire attitude to opening times, because that is yet another area that is potentially open to abuse. The sensible thing would be for the officer in charge to take advice from the Electoral Commission as to the appropriate signing place and the appropriate opening hours for the area in question. By doing that, we may get a more satisfactory outcome.
Clause 9 deals with the wording of a petition signing sheet. The hon. Member for Caerphilly made a good point. I cannot see why the wording is in primary legislation. Under the Representation of People Act 1983, such detail is usually done through secondary legislation. In addition, I do not understand why subsection (4) says:
“The wording of a petition signing sheet must include the following”.
The implication is that the wording may include a whole lot of other things that the Minister does not wish to prescribe. I am slightly concerned about why, when we are very prescriptive about what appears on a ballot paper, we are so laissez-faire about something that may influence to a much greater extent a person’s decision on whether they wish to sign a petition.
Will the Minister also carefully examine the last sentence of subsection (4), because it is very clumsy? The liberal use of the Oxford comma, which I would normally applaud, makes the sentence difficult to understand. It states:
“If less than 10% of eligible registered electors in the constituency sign the petition, the MP will not lose [his/her] seat, and a by-election will not be held, as a result of the petition.”
I did not table an amendment, but I ask him to examine that. If he is going to do this at all, after the words
“the MP will not lose [his/her] seat”
he might just finish the sentence by saying “therefore, no by-election will be held”. That would be a little more understandable for most people reading the provision and trying to work out what on earth it means, because the current wording gives a contrary impression.