§ 6. Mr. Beithasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will introduce legislation to provide that no elector shall be registered at one time in more than one constituency in respect of parliamentary elections.
§ Dr. SummerskillMy right hon. Friend is considering this in the context of the recommendations made by Mr. Speaker's Conference in the last Parliament.
§ Mr. BeithIn considering this matter, will the hon. Lady bear in mind not only the difficulties caused to electoral registration officers by the law as it stands but the fact that many people who 607 have weekend cottages have the opportunity to switch their votes between constituencies on the basis of whichever is the more marginal of the two in which they are registered? Will she bear in mind also the need for adequate safeguards against double voting in one General Election?
§ Dr. SummerskillI am aware of those facts. Mr. Speaker's Conference recommended unanimously that multiple registration should be prohibited. But it seems likely that major representation of the people legislation will have to await a later Session.
§ Dr. Edmund MarshallIs my hon. Friend aware that under present legislation it is possible for a person who is registered in two constituencies to vote at all by-elections in those constituencies even if, by chance, the by-elections occur on the same day? Does this not infringe the democratic principle of one man, one vote?
§ Dr. SummerskillI am aware that dual or multiple registration increases the risk of plural voting, and this was borne in mind by Mr. Speaker's Conference.
§ Mrs. Kellett-BowmanAs the hon. Lady has replied that the recommendation was unanimous, why need there be delay? Why should not legislation be be brought in this Session?
§ Dr. SummerskillIt is a precedent followed by all Governments, including the last Labour Government and the last Conservative Government, that legislation concerning representation of the people should not be introduced in a piecemeal manner. We are awaiting the final recommendations of Mr. Speaker's Conference.
§ 7. Mr. Tylerasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he is satisfied that the absence of the presiding officer's mark on a ballot paper should automatically invalidate it; and whether he will seek powers to leave this matter to the discretion of individual returning officers.
§ Dr. SummerskillMy right hon. Friend believes that this is a valuable safeguard which it would be wrong to abandon, and that to leave a discretion to the returning officers would be undesirable.
§ Mr. TylerIs the hon. Lady aware that in my constituency in the recent election no fewer than 86 persons were disfranchised for this reason? While it is true that, had they been included, my majority would have been more than doubled—from 9 to 19—is it not still a matter of concern that in certain circumstances the declared will of the electorate could be flouted by a mistake in the electoral system?
§ Dr. SummerskillI sympathise with the hon. Gentleman's predicament, but the object of the requirement is to safeguard against the introduction of stolen or fabricated ballot papers into the ballot boxes or at the count. It would place the returning officers in an extremely invidious position if it were left to their discretion to decide what was valid and what was not.
§ 16. Dr. Edmund Marshallasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he intends to make recommendations to electoral registration officers for improving the accuracy of registers.
§ Dr. SummerskillMy right hon. Friend does not think that any general guidance is called for. Electoral registration officers are aware of the need for the register to be as acurate as it is humanly possible to make it.
§ Dr. MarshallIn view of the large number of people who found at the recent General Election that they had been omitted from the electoral register, will my hon. Friend ask the Secretary of State to impress on electoral registration officers the need for the fullest possible canvass when compiling the register, including the delivery each year of registration forms to all places of residence, and a personal visit to those homes from which no form is returned?
§ Dr. SummerskillYes, we are bearing those points in mind. We are encouraging the public to take the opportunity of checking the lists, which are available before the register is finally compiled. The present law prevents the correction of the register having effect at an election if it is made after notice of that election is given. I propose to arrange for further consideration to be given to that provision.
§ Mr. Tom KingIs the hon. Lady aware that, after all the canvassing and other 609 arrangements have been carried through, mistakes still occur? Should not there be a facility for some subsequent amendment to be carried out? In one particularly unfortunate case, a vicar in my constituency urged everybody that it was his Christian duty to vote in the election and then found that he was himself disqualified from doing so.
§ Dr. SummerskillI think that cases such as that described by the hon. Gentleman are covered by my final remarks, when I said that I hope to make it possible to alter or correct the register after an election is announced.
§ Mr. Arthur LewisWill the Minister consider the position of areas containing a large immigrant population, where landlords who are illegally charging too much rent and illegally failing to report those rents to the income tax authorities deliberately burn the forms when they arrive because they do not want the names to be put on the register? Is my hon. Friend aware that there may be 20 or 30 people living in the same house, for which landlords are drawing 20 or 30 rents of £10 each per week? Will the Minister consider this aspect, of which details have been sent to her?
§ Dr. SummerskillClearly, what my hon. Friend has described would be a criminal offence. If my hon. Friend knows any of the names and addresses concerned, I suggest that he tells the police.