My Lords, we should thank the noble Earl, Lord Lytton, for raising this matter in the first place, and he should certainly claim a substantial amount of credit for it. He regaled us in Committee with some of the anomalies and archaic processes concerning parish meetings. Voting only between 4 pm and 9 pm with no provision for proxy or postal voting is hardly the stuff of inclusion. The noble Earl was convincing on the need to modernise arrangements, and the Government responded by providing for the Secretary of State to have the power to make regulations about the conduct of parish polls. We consented in the other place, as the Minister acknowledged, in widening the scope of the Bill to facilitate this.
The Government gave undertakings in another place—they have been reiterated tonight—about continued collaboration with the National Association of Local Councils and with the noble Earl, and we trust that the promised wide consultation on draft regulations will now proceed apace. This is an opportunity, as has been said, to provide a method for local communities to have a voice on issues directly related to parish matters, and it has our support.