I am happy to confirm from this Dispatch Box that the Government’s position is to maintain the electoral timetable as it stands—I am not proposing an extension or reduction—but I draw the threads together as follows. We need to ensure that the system works for voters, and that includes them having enough time to register to vote, to receive their ballot papers, to return their ballot papers and to decide on the candidates in each constituency—we have a constituency-based system, after all. We also need to be able to make the same point about supporting candidates to fulfil their part of what needs to happen in an election timetable, both those who stand for parties and those who stand as independents. We have to think through these things if we legislate here.
In response to right hon. and hon. Members who have tabled the amendments, I suggest there is perhaps a space here for looking further into these issues. There would be an opportunity to have some research drawn together on the tensions between voter engagement, the resilience of polls and the needs of the country for a period when it does not have a Parliament or MPs able to help constituents. Although the Government continue to hold the powers needed to carry out essential business and respond to sudden, unexpected or distressing events, none the less the Government do after all need Parliament to be sitting. If needed, I will return to those points after right hon. and hon. Members have spoken, but I will leave new clause 1 and amendment 3 there.
7.15 pm
I think I have covered all but amendments 4 and 5, tabled by the hon. Member for Carmarthen East and Dinefwr (Jonathan Edwards). Please correct me, Mr Evans, if there are any others I have missed, but I think I have covered the set. These amendments highlight a matter that I have been considering carefully, and their tabling gives me an opportunity to update the House on the consideration that the Government have given to how elections to this place, the Senedd or the Scottish Parliament work. I have been engaging for a long while with my devolved counterparts on this matter.
As hon. Members will know, in the event that a UK parliamentary general election is called on the same day as the scheduled poll to the Senedd, those scheduled
polls must be moved. That change was introduced following the recommendations of the Smith and Silk commissions and enacted later through legislation. The position is different for extraordinary elections in the devolved legislatures, which reflects the requirement for flexibility in those circumstances in particular. Under those Acts, the relevant Secretary of State is able, by recommendation and only with agreement, to make provision for the combination of extraordinary Senedd elections with all types of UK parliamentary general elections and by-elections.
Amendments 4 and 5 would prevent the making of regulations for the combination of polls. In doing so, it would remove the ability to make provision for the orderly conduct of the combination of polls, if the Prime Minister were to call an election on a day there was to be an extraordinary election to the Senedd. It is worth noting that the issue that the hon. Gentleman raises is not necessarily a product of the Bill. Even under the 2011 Act, extraordinary elections to the devolved legislatures could be combined with all kinds of parliamentary elections, both scheduled and so-called early ones. What is more, the amendments are not necessary, as they seek to address an issue that is highly unlikely to materialise: the confluence of two unexpected elections. It may be that the hon. Gentleman’s amendments are intended in effect to place limits on the ability of the Prime Minister to call a general election on a day on which there is to be that extraordinary election to the Senedd. I encourage the hon. Gentleman not to press the amendments, because they could fundamentally restrict the flexibility that is an essential feature of our democratic arrangements, which the Bill seeks to restore.
What I can be clear about today is that when deciding to call an election, the Prime Minister will take account of a range of factors, including elections to the devolved legislatures. I am well aware of the challenges of holding elections simultaneously or in close proximity, so the UK Government would therefore be mindful of any elections due to take place for the Scottish Parliament or the Welsh Senedd and encourage the best kind of close working between the administrators of each types of election.