My Lords, in the previous debate, I referred to a letter that I had written to my noble friend Lady Scott where I raised a number of electoral issues. I mentioned this when we debated other SIs in the Moses Room a few weeks ago, when I said that I had received replies to questions that I had not asked. One was on a subject covered by this statutory instrument.
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I raised the question of environmental referendums in neighbourhood plans, and I sent a copy of the letter to the Electoral Commission, the AEA, the noble Lord, Lord Rennard, the noble Baroness, Lady Hayman, and others because, as I indicated at the end of that letter, these are broad electoral matters—I am referring to page 31 and the requirement to ensure that ratepayers, who may be multiple ratepayers, are fully aware that they are entitled to vote only once in the area where a referendum is taking place, even if they have more than one property there. I was seeking clarification on the guidance because the police had decided not to take action where somebody voted five times because he maintained that he genuinely believed that he was
so entitled. The response from the police was that the guidance was not clear. I was seeking a response from different people and the response I received from the Minister said that I was asking the department to intervene on a police operational matter. I was not; I was seeking clarification on the guidance. I am taking this opportunity to re-emphasise that somebody, whether the Electoral Commission, the law or whatever it is, has to make the guidance clear so that people cannot reasonably come to that conclusion, and the full force of the law can be applied to somebody who votes five times when they are entitled to vote only once.