§ Order of the day for the Second Reading read.
§ * LORD RIBBLESDALEMy Lords, the object of this Bill is to remedy the present anomaly throughout England whereby the county councils are the authority for dividing Parliamentary boroughs into polling districts for Parliamentary elections where a borough is situated in more than one petty sessional division, but the Justices in petty sessions are the authority where the borough is situated wholly in their petty sessional division. This is an anomaly which has crept in under various Acts of Parliament. At present Parliamentary electoral divisions, council electoral divisions, and guardian wards in London are all practically co-terminous, but the authorities for dividing these divisions differ in each respect; and it is desirable that the council, which is the authority for dividing the council electoral divisions and also the Parliamentary electoral divisions in the main, should be made the sole authority for dealing with the whole. The Parliamentary and council voting lists are made out together, and it would avoid confusion if they were divided in the same way, and an elector would always vote at the same place at each election. This Bill also has, I believe, the support of the Government, and is quite unopposed.
§ On Question, Bill read 2a (according to order) and committed to a Committee of the Whole House on Thursday next.