§ 2. Mr. Martin Salter (Reading, West)If he will make a statement about reform of electoral procedure and voting systems. [99677]
§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department (Mr. Mike O'Brien)The Representation of the People Bill, which will modernise our electoral procedures, received its Second Reading last Tuesday.
§ Mr. SalterDoes my hon. Friend recall the representations that I made to him earlier this year, in which I drew attention to the fact that the British National party had submitted false European election nomination forms? In that way, because it could claim that it was fielding the requisite number of candidates, it was able to ensure that its disgusting and racist views could be broadcast on national television. How will the newly published Representation of the People Bill deal with that tactic? Does my hon. Friend plan to allow a longer period in which nomination papers can be checked to prevent such abuses?
§ Mr. O'BrienWe want to ensure that those who nominate candidates for electoral office are properly registered on the electoral register. The Representation of the People Bill will help in that regard. We also want to ensure that people who have the opportunity to use valuable national television and media time to put forward their political views comply properly with the law, and that they are not among those who incite racial hatred.
§ Mr. Peter Viggers (Gosport)Will the Minister name another democratic country in which the electoral procedure and voting system in the second Chamber is effectively the patronage of the Prime Minister?
§ Mr. O'BrienIn asking about another country, I suspect that the hon. Gentleman is implying that that is what happens here. It is not quite like that. Perhaps the hon. Gentleman needs a lesson on the British constitution: the procedure does not work as he described.
§ Mr. Martin Linton (Battersea)Does my hon. Friend accept that the provisions in the Representation of the People Bill for a rolling register and postal voting on demand amount to a huge step forward? However, will he 541 give further consideration to the suggestion that people who are vulnerable to domestic violence should be able to register anonymously on all published registers?
§ Mr. O'BrienOne of our concerns has been that the addresses of victims of domestic violence, and others, are widely available because they are on the electoral register. We are examining ways in which we can enable such people to be properly registered to vote, while ensuring that their names and addresses cannot be sold without their consent. In the past, such information has been disseminated by means of a CD-ROM given away free with a magazine, which meant that anyone wanting to find out where another person was could do so easily. The concerns expressed by my hon. Friend are very real, and I hope that we will be able to discuss them when the Bill is considered in Committee. In due course, I hope that the legislation will offer at least some protection for people in those circumstances.
§ Mr. Owen Paterson (North Shropshire)In his reply to my hon. Friend the Member for Gosport (Mr. Viggers), the Minister said "It is not quite like that". If so, can he confirm that the millennium peers of whom we have heard will be appointed by the Appointments Commission, and will not be personally appointed by the Prime Minister?
§ Mr. O'BrienFor 18 years, the hon. Gentleman and his Conservative colleagues were quite happy to appoint various people to the House of Lords with no complaint about the process. By raising the matter only when a Labour Government are committed to modernising the constitution, they merely draw attention to their failure to do anything during those 18 years.