HC Deb 23 January 1945 vol 407 cc683-6

  1. (1) An application for the registration of any person in the business premises register to be comprised in the May, 1945, register or the annual register, may, if at the time of the application that person is a member of the forces or a seaman, be made on that person's behalf by that person's spouse, or if that person is not married or is separated from the spouse, or the spouse is a member of the forces, a seaman or a war worker abroad, by the manager of that person's business.
  2. (2) Any person registered in the business premises register in pursuance of an application made under this section shall not be entitled to vote in person in respect of that registration, but shall be entered in the absent voters list and entitled to appoint a proxy, and shall be entitled to vote by post or by proxy accordingly:
    • Provided that no ballot paper shall be sent to a person so registered for the purpose of voting by post except in pursuance of a request or application made by that person.
  3. (3) Subsection (3) and (so far as it relates to appointments of proxies or cancellations of such appointments) subsection (4) of section eighteen of this Act shall apply to the appointment and voting of proxies under this section and to the cancellation of such appointments as they apply to the appointment and voting of proxies under that section and the cancellation of such appointments.
  4. (4) Any application made under this section for a person to he registered in the May, 684 1945, register shall be made in accordance with subsection (4) of section fourteen of this Act, and shall be treated accordingly as having been made also for the purposes of any election initiated in the month of March, nineteen hundred and forty-five;
    • Provided that the person making the application shall insert therein a declaration—
      1. (a) that he or she is the spouse of the person on whose behalf it is made, or that he or she is the manager of that person's business and either that person is not married or the spouse is a member of the forces, a seaman or a war worker abroad or is separated from that person; and
      2. (b) that that person is at the time of the application a member of the forces or a seaman.
  5. (5) In this section references to the manager of a person's business shall be construed, in relation to any application made under this section on that person's behalf, as referring to the person who at the time of the application is carrying on on that person's behalf or as his partner the business, profession or trade of that person in respect of which the application is made; and the expression "war worker abroad" means a person registered or qualified to be registered in the service register for any constituency otherwise than as a member of the forces or a seaman.
  6. (6) Sub-paragraph (i) of paragraph (a) of subsection (1) of section fifteen of the Act of 1943 (which penalises persons making false statements in applications to be registered in the business premises register) shall apply in relation to an application under this section as if it were made by the person signing it on his own behalf.
  7. (7) In the application of this section to persons disqualified as peers from registration as parliamentary electors—
    1. (a) the reference in subsection (1) thereof to the May 1945 register and subsection (4) thereof shall not apply; and
    2. (b) subsection (2) thereof and subsection (3) of section eighteen of this Act as applied by subsection (3) of this section shall have effect subject to any modifications prescribed by electoral registration regulations made under the following provisions of this Act for conferring on those persons rights as to the appointment of a proxy to vote at local government elections.—[The Lord Advocate.]

Brought up, and read the First time.

The Lord Advocate

I beg to move, "That the Clause be read a Second time".

In the course of the Committee stage a question was raised by my hon. and gallant Friend the Member for West Edinburgh (Lieut.-Commander Hutchison) and my hon. Friend the Member for Thirsk and Malton (Mr. Turton) as to the method of claiming for the business vote in the case where the business voter was himself on service and might find it rather difficult to make a claim. We recognised that a substantial point was involved. We had, of course, considered it before the postal voting Clauses were introduced during the Committee stage, but we had not at that stage dealt with this point, because we had found it impossible to get a really satisfactory scheme. We were, however, pressed on the point in Committee and agreed to reconsider the matter, and the present Clause is the result. We still find it impossible to get a really water-tight Clause, and I must therefore warn the House that while this Clause does go a very long way to meet the point it is not altogether flawless and I should not be surprised if various hon. Members were to see deficiencies in it, though probably we have already seen most of them ourselves. Therefore, the best I can do is to present this Clause as a workable one, but one which will not cover 100 per cent. of the cases, and will not necessarily work with precise smoothness in every possible contingency.

12.30 p.m.

The scheme of the Clause is that wherever there is a potential business voter in the Forces, or serving as a seaman or a war-worker abroad—the latter category is not mentioned in the Clause, but is included by reason of other provisions in other legislation—then his spouse or, if he has not a wife, or is separated, then his manager, including his partner, may make an application on his behalf. We have limited the powers to make application, to one person in order to avoid difficulties which might well arise if two, or more, persons were given joint power to make application, and the application will be accompanied by a declaration of the qualification of the spouse or partner, as the case may be—that she is a spouse or partner—and that the voter, on whose behalf the application is made, is on service. That application must be made before 28th February, and on its being made, and admitted, the voter is put on the register, on the absent voters' list. But that, of course, does not give him adequate facilities to record his vote, and it will then be for the voter himself to make a claim either for a postal ballot paper, or to have a proxy put on the register on his behalf.

We cannot allow the applicant to appoint a proxy on behalf of somebody else, and we do not think it right that the applicant should supply the address to which the postal ballot is to be sent. The right person to do that is the applicant himself, but this application keeps the door open, and it will be possible for the voter himself after 28th February and, indeed, at any time down to the initiation of the election, and later, to put the matter right by having his proxy appointed, or asking for a postal ballot in appropriate circumstances. I think this goes as far as we can to meet the point and does, in fact, substantially meet the point. I hope that my hon. and gallant Friend and those who supported him in this matter will agree that this Clause substantially meets their case.

Lieut.-Commander Hutchison (Edinburgh, West)

In the Committee stage my right hon. and learned Friend the Lord Advocate undertook to look into this matter and to consider what could be done to safeguard the rights of the absent business voter. I appreciate that this is a matter of considerable complexity, and I welcome the new Clause as meeting the case which I and my hon. Friend the Member for Thirsk (Mr. Turton) put forward, and am grateful to the Government for their action in this matter.

Question put, and agreed to.

Clause read a Second time, and added to the Bill.