My Lords, my noble friend Lord Tyler and I have both signed the amendments in this group. They clearly result from the lengthy discussions we had in Committee about the right time to end the carryover for electors from the household register to the individual register. The debate then centred on how confident we can be as to how well the transition to individual electoral registration will be seen to be by 1 December 2015. Some people may be very confident that it will all work well in terms of both completeness and accuracy; as your Lordships know, I am a bit less confident about that. None of us can be certain about which is the right assessment to make until the transition is actually under way and properly tested. As we know, we are piloting various things at the moment, but with software which will not even be the final software for use when we are fully into individual electoral registration. It was for that reason that I was determined in Committee that there should be a mechanism by which we could extend the carryover if, for example, the Electoral Commission reported by 1 December 2015 that many people would unjustifiably be removed from the electoral register and that the register was at that point significantly less complete than at present.
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The Electoral Commission will, of course, give advice on this issue, but I do not think that it is appropriate for the commission to decide on such an issue. The Electoral Commission should advise us, and Parliament itself must be able to decide on this issue. It would not be right for a Minister simply to decide that—in his opinion, or in the opinion of the Government—it was the right time to make such a fundamental change. These amendments are right to extend the period of carryover for voters on the existing household register to 2016 as a default legislative position, while permitting the Minister to propose to Parliament that the carryover be ended in 2015, with the proviso that either House can disagree.
The government amendments in this group provide an essential failsafe and are an important part of protecting our democratic system. If it appears that this transition has not worked effectively enough in 2015 but a Minister tries to press ahead in any event, Parliament can prevent that Minister doing so. I am therefore very grateful to all those who have contributed to debates on this subject, and for the discussions that I have had with Ministers and for the flexibility shown. We on these Benches will therefore support the government amendments unamended.
Finally, I have a brief word on Amendments 6 and 7, tabled by the noble and learned Lord, Lord Falconer of Thoroton, which are about postal votes. I tested the logic of the Government’s position on this issue in Committee. We received considerable reassurances that postal voters will be given considerable assistance in ensuring that they can continue to have access to a postal vote, should they decide to do so. They are also, importantly, still able to vote in person should they wish to do so. They are not losing their right to vote if they are not registered under the IER system by the time of the relevant election. The Government have made a little concession on this issue. Perhaps it is something that we will still have to review but, for the moment, we on these Benches are satisfied by what the Government have said.