PARLIAMENTARY ELECTORS (WAR-TIME REGISTRATION) ACT, 1944. (Hansard, 28 October 1947)

§ THE LORD CHANCELLOR (VISCOUNT JOWITT)

had given Notice that he would move to resolve, That the date of expiration of Section 1 of the Parliamentary Electors (War-Time Registration) Act, 1944, be postponed to the thirty-first day of December, nineteen hundred and forty-eight. The noble and learned Viscount said: My Lords, I may tell your Lordships that I believe this to be entirely non-controversial. This Resolution is to continue in force for another year Section 1 of the Parliamentary Electors (War-Time Registration) Act, 1944, which would otherwise expire at the end of this year. The effect of the Act of 1944 is to suspend any requirement as to a qualifying period of residence for inclusion in the Civilian Register of Electors, and it is proposed to extend its operation in order that next year's Register, like all the Registers published during the last two and a half years, may be prepared with reference to a single qualifying date.

Section 5 (1) of the Parliamentary Electors (War-Time Registration) Act, 1943, provided for a person's inclusion in the Register in respect of the address for which he had been registered in the National Register for a period of two months ending on a qualifying date. This qualification was subject to the conditions that (a) removal from one address to another in the same constituency during a qualifying period would not destroy a maturing qualification, and (b) a qualification once obtained would hold good until a subsequent qualification was acquired. The ad- 169 ministrative and clerical operations necessary to ascertain the existence of an electoral qualification in accordance with the 1943 Act were, however, very intricate. It soon became evident that the staffs of the electoral registration officers were not, for. the time being, in a position to carry out this complicated procedure; and accordingly the 1944 Act was passed to simplify the procedure. That Act was originally to expire at the end of 1945, unless renewed by a Resolution of both Houses, but Section 2 of the Elections and Jurors Act, 1945, continued it in force until the end of 1946, and it was again renewed until the end of the present year by a Resolution of both Houses passed a year ago.

The difficulties which made the 1944 Act necessary are by no means at an end, and for that reason alone it would be desirable to continue it in force. There is, however, a further reason why in the Government's view it should not now be allowed to lapse. As stated in the King's speech, the Government propose in the course of this Session to introduce a Bill dealing with electoral matters, and amongst other things the Bill will contain permanent provisions on electoral registration. In framing these provisions regard will, of course, be had to the recommendations of the Committee on Electoral Registration, and your Lordships will recall that that Committee recommended that there should in future be no qualifying period for registration.

The provisions of the new Bill as regards registration will not take effect in time for next year's Register—even after the Bill has been passed some time must elapse before the necessary administrative arrangements can be completed for putting it into effect—but it is intended that it should take effect in 1949. Next year's Register, therefore, will be the last to be prepared under the existing procedure. In these circumstances, it would clearly not be appropriate or sensible at this stage to make an important change in the procedure for preparing that Register. The purpose of this Resolution is to avoid doing so. I understand that in another place later on this evening a similar Resolution will be proposed and, as I have told your Lordships, I have no reason to anticipate that in the other place there will be any controversy With regard to this matter. My Lords, I beg to move.