CLAUSE 9. —(Spring and Autumn Registers.) (Hansard, 21 November 1917)

§ Sir G. YOUNGER
I beg to move, in Sub-section (2), to leave out the words "fifteenth day of April" ["on the com- 1283 mencement of the fifteenth day of April and remain "], and to insert instead thereof the words " first day of May."
The reason for moving this .Amendment is this: By paragraph 23 of the First Schedule it will be found that it is the duty of the registration officer to publish the spring register not later than the 15th day of April, and the autumn register not later than the 15th day of October in each year. My Amendment seeks to alter this date by a fortnight in each case. It has already been found, I believe, in England certainly, and I am not sure it has not been found in Scotland, rather a trouble if an election is pending on a new register which has only been published a day or two before the election. In this particular case the register has only to he published on the 15th of April and the 15th of October, and I am proposing an interval of a fortnight before it comes into operation, so that no one should have the impossible task of attempting an election on a new register of a six-monthly kind without having some opportunity of seeing who were on it. That is the only reason for proposing this Amendment, and I think I have asked for the very shortest possible interval.

§ Colonel GRETTON
I beg to second the Amendment.
There can really be very little objection to an Amendment of this kind. The register is made up twice a year. What it really means is that the possible election will be postponed until the register actually comes into force. Clearly, if an election is to take place, you want to know clearly and definitely who is on the register, so that absent voters and so on can be looked up, and all the electors whose names are on the new register, if the election takes place on the new register, will have a proper opportunity of recording their votes. This is really in the interests of ascertaining the real opinions of the electors, and I, therefore, suggest that this is a proper Amendment to introduce into the Bill.

§ Mr. HAYES FISHER
I think my hon. Friends have probably omitted to observe that unless they have put down other Amendments to Schedule 1, Rule 23, the result will be that there will be a period of fifteen days, from 15th April till 1st of May, during which them will be no register at all, and 1284 another period of fifteen days, from 15th October to 1st November, during which there will be two registers in force. The time-table has been very carefully selected. On 1st February and 1st August the lists are to be published, on 15th February and 15th August claims are to be made, on 21st February and 21st August claims are to be published, and on 15th April and 15th October the register is to be published. I admit that there are reasons why, if we could do it, it would be well to give the registration officer even greater time to make up his register than he has got, but one part of our time-table very much depends on another part, and we shall be reluctant to change it. We shall have to rely, in practice, on Clause 39, which says: Notwithstanding anything in this Act, the first register to be prepared under this Act shall come into force on, and remain in force until, such date as His Majesty may fix by Order in Council, and His Majesty may, by any such Order, alter, in connection with the first register, any registration dates and direct that this Act shall have effect as so altered. That is the first election. I do not for a moment think that we have been so wise and so prescient that we shall have succeeded in framing a Bill, covering the whole electoral law of the future, which will not have to be considerably altered after the first election and the great experience which we shall have got through the making up of the first register. I am fully persuaded that we are going to learn a very great deal in practice from our first register and any election which may take place upon it. These dates have been very carefully thought out. Let us keep them in the Bill, particularly when we have power to alter any of these dates, and to alter the time at which the register can come into force, by compartments, so far as the first register is concerned. That, of course, will be by Order in Council, which can be criticised in this House. It gives great power to the Department which will be mainly concerned in bringing this register into force. I trust my hon. Friends will be content with this explanation and will not press the Amendment.

§ Mr. GULLAND
I quite agree with the right hon. Gentleman that it would be very unwise at this stage to alter the dates which have been so carefully calculated and arranged, but at the same time I 1285 agree with the hon. Baronet in much that he has said. I know, as a matter of experience, for instance, that the municipal elections—because I think that this applies to the local government register also—in Scotland take place by Statute on the first Tuesday in November, which somehow or other has several times happened to be the first day of November. I have seen in my experience that it is almost impossible to get the register ready for a day or two before that. It has happened in my experience that the numbered register has not been ready until the actual polling day, and, therefore, the candidates have not been able to send to the electors the poll cards with the number properly marked on them. That is a very serious defect in electioneering machinery. I hope the right hon. Gentleman will give effect, at any rate, to the spirit of the hon. Baronet's Amendment in connection with the first election held under this register, because we shall have such an enormous number of electors that it will be an absolute necessity that the register should be published at the earliest possible moment in order that the electors may be circularised. Especially as the Government and the House have adopted the principle of paying pre-postage, it is only right that that free matter should reach them in good time. So far as I know, there is no statutory election for any body that takes place in October.

§ Sir G. YOUNGER
Sometimes county council elections.

§ Mr. GULLAND
I thought they were in December. But, so far as Parliament is concerned, there are, at any rate, triennial school board elections in Scotland which have to take place during April, and if the Amendment were carried it might bring it about that these elections would be held on a dying register. I am not quite sure of that, but I think there is something in it. and it is right, therefore, that we should back up the right hon. Gentleman in his desire that this Amendment should not be accepted, but that he should give effect to the spirit of it.

§ Mr. M. HEALY
I think there is something in the point made by the Mover of the Amendment, but I should have thought the proper way to cure it would be by providing that the register should be published some days before it comes into force.

§ Sir G. YOUNGER
That is rather too short a time.

§ Mr. HEALY
It is possible that you may have an election on the very first day that the register comes into force. If the register is only to be published on that date, it will be quite impossible to conduct the elections efficiently. But whatever Amendment is made in this Clause in the direction the hon. Baronet desires, the same difficulties would arise if he did not put the date of the publication of the register some days before the day the register comes into force. It is a defect not in this Clause, but in the Schedule, which provides that the register shall only be published on 15th April and 15th October. If the dates are such that it is impossible for the officer to do his business within that time, then you run it too short. If you are putting the officer in this position, that he cannot possibly have his register ready until the very day it comes into force, that is creating a defect in the time table. But the defect is at the end and not at the beginning. There is some substance in the hon. Baronet's point, but the Amendment will do no good whatever. The way to get satisfaction is to amend the Schedule and alter the date, not when the register shall come into force, but shall be first published and ready. The Act should provide that the-register should be ready some moderate time before it comes into force, otherwise you may have an election on a register which no candidate has ever seen.

§ Sir G. YOUNGER
After what the right hon. Gentleman said I ask leave to withdraw the Amendment.