HC Deb 22 July 1937 vol 326 cc2393-5
31. Mr. G. Strauss

asked the Home Secretary whether he is aware that the poll in recent by-elections averaged about 50 per cent. of the electorate, and that this was in part due to the contests beingfought on old and incomplete registers; and will he therefore take steps to enable a six-monthly instead of a yearly register to be compiled?

Sir S. Hoare

I am not in a position to estimate the extent to which the size of the poll at by-elections is related to the age of the register, but there does not appear to me to be any justification for incurring the heavy expenditure which would be involved in the hon. Member's suggestion.

Mr. Strauss

Does the Home Secretary consider it satisfactory or in the best interests of democracy that an individual moving into a constituency now will not be able to vote in that constituency for another year? Will he not take some steps to remedy that situation?

Mr. Wise

Will my right hon. Friend consider the possibility of having the register issued a fortnight earlier, say on 1st October, instead of about the middle, as the municipal elections are always in November and it would greatly facilitate the conduct of them?

Sir S. Hoare

I will certainly consider my hon. Friend's suggestion, though offhand I cannot say whether it is practicable or not. As to the wider issue raised by the hon. Member for North Lambeth (Mr. G. Strauss), my own view is that the expense would not be justified.

Mr. Attlee

Will the right hon. Gentleman make inquiries from those responsible for running the recent by-elections as to the number of removals in those elections, particularly in those constituencies where there are heavy movements of the population round big towns?

Sir S. Hoare

Probably I am just as much aware as any hon. Member of the great problem of removals, sitting as I do for a London constituency. At the same time, as at present advised I am not prepared to recommend so heavy an expenditure as would be involved.

Mr. Maclean

Is it not the case that the register at one time was issued twice a year under the Parliament Act, but that the twice-a-year system was discarded upon the recommendation of the Geddes Committee as a matter of economy, and since we are now, as the Government always insist, in an era of prosperity, will not the right hon. Gentleman see to it that the register is published twice yearly again?

Mr. Noel-Baker

Has such a financial consideration to be taken into account when the question at issue is the virtual disfranchisement of a good many of the poorer-class citizens?

Sir S. Hoare

I could not admit that there is such a disfranchisement. I am not prepared to admit that the issue of only one register a year does necessarily disfranchise people at all. It is really a question of judging whether the expense is or is not worth while, and, as at present advised, I am not prepared to say that it is.

Mr. Maclean

Is the Minister going to reply to my supplementary question?

Sir S. Hoare

I am afraid that I have forgotten what it was.

Mr. Maclean

As the right hon. Gentleman himself took part in the discussions I should have thought he would have remembered it. Is it not the case that the twice-a-year register was abandoned on the recommendations of the Geddes Committee, on the score of economy, and since we are now in the era of prosperity which the right hon. Gentleman, among other Cabinet Ministers, talks about, will he now see to it that the Geddes recommendation is put aside and we return to the twice-a-year register as was laid down in the Parliament Act?

Sir S. Hoare

No, Sir, I must still say that however prosperous we may be we have to take into account whether any particular item of expenditure is worth while, and as at present advised I am not convinced that it is so in this case. It runs into something like £500,000 a year.