Moved by
Lord Rennard
52: Before Clause 13, insert the following new Clause—
“Provision for polling to take place at weekends
(1) Section 1 of the Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011 (polling days for parliamentary general elections) is amended as follows.
(2) In subsection (2), leave out “The polling day” and insert “Polling”.
(3) In subsection (2), leave out “7 May 2015” and insert “conducted over the course of one day, or two consecutive days, between 2 May 2015 and 10 May 2015 inclusive”.
(4) In subsection (3), leave out “The polling day” and insert “Polling”.
(5) In subsection (3), leave out “the first Thursday” and insert “conducted over the course of one day, or two consecutive days, and in the first ten days”.
(6) In subsection (3), after “day” in the third line insert “or days”.
(7) In subsection (4)—
(a) leave out “the polling day” and insert “polling had been conducted”,
(b) in paragraph (a) leave out “was appointed”,
(c) for paragraph (b) substitute—
“(b) was conducted before the first weekend in May”.
(8) In subsection (5), after “day” insert “or days”.
(9) In subsection (5), leave out “is” and insert “are”.
(10) In subsection (7), after “day” insert “or days”.
(11) After subsection (7) insert—
“(8) The Prime Minister must by order made by statutory instrument specify the day, or days, on which polling is to be conducted under subsection (2) by 31 January 2014.
(9) The Prime Minister must by order made by statutory instrument specify the day, or days, on which polling is to be conducted under subsection (3) by a date no later than 15 months before the first weekend in May in the fifth calendar year following that in which polling had been conducted for the previous parliamentary general election.””