§ 6.7 p.m.
§ Order of the Day for the House to be put into Committee read.
§ Moved, That the House do now resolve itself into Committee—(Lord Chorley.)
§ On Question, Motion agreed to.
§ House in Committee accordingly:
§ [The LORD MERTHYR in the Chair]
§ Clause 1 agreed to.
§ LORD CHORLEY moved, after Clause 1 to insert the following new clause:
§ Voting rights of certain persons coming of age during currency of register
§ "(2).—(1) A person who is not of full age on the qualifying date for a parliamentary or local government election in a constituency or electoral area in Great Britain, being an election at which the date fixed for the poll falls within the period beginning with the second day of October in any year and ending with the next following, fifteenth day of March, shall, if he is of full age on the fifteenth day of June in that year and is otherwise entitled so to do, be entitled to vote as an elector at that election, and the reference in subsection (1) of section eight of the principal Act (which relates to registration rights) to persons who may he entitled to vote as electors at parliamentary elections for which any register is to be used and the reference in subsection (2) of that section to persons who may be entitled to vote as electors at local government elections for which any register is to be used shall, in the application of those subsections to Great Britain, be construed accordingly.
§ (2) A person who is not of full age on the qualifying date for a parliamentary election in a constituency in Northern Ireland, being an election at which the date fixed for the poll falls within the period beginning with the second day of October in any year and ending with the next following first day of April, shall, if he is of full age on the thirtieth day of April in that year and is otherwise entitled so to do, be entitled to vote as an elector at that election, and the reference in subsection (1) of section eight of the principal Act to persons who may be entitled to vote as electors at parliamentary elections for which any register is to be used shall, in the application of that subsection to Northern Ireland, be construed accordingly.
§ (3) Where, by virtue of subsection (6) of section one of this Act, any part of the register to be used at such a parliamentary or local government election as is mentioned in subsection (1) of this section falls to be used at an election at which the date fixed for the poll falls after the expiration of the period so mentioned, the said subsection (1) shall, as regards a person registered by virtue thereof in that part of the register, apply in relation to the election as it applies in relation to an election at which the date fixed for the poll falls within that period; and where, by virtue 1380 of the said subsection (6), any part of the register to be used at such a parliamentary election as is mentioned in subsection (2) of this section falls to be used at an election at which the date fixed for the poll falls after the period so mentioned, the said subsection (2) shall, as regards a person registered by virtue thereof in that part of the register, apply in relation to the election as it applies in relation to an election at which the date fixed for the poll falls within that period.
§ (4) The provisions of the First Schedule to this Act shall have effect for the purpose of making in the principal Act amendments consequential on the foregoing provisions of this section.
§ (5) This section and the First Schedule to this Act shall have effect with respect to elections for which registers to be published in the year nineteen hundred and fifty-one and subsequent years are to be used and with respect to such registers and forms to be used for the purposes of such elections.
§ (6) In this section and in the First Schedule to this Act the expression 'the principal Act' means the Representation of the People Act, 1949."
§ The noble Lord said: As I informed the Committee on the Second Reading, we proposed to put down an Amendment in order to meet a strong view expressed when this Bill was before another place, that the position of persons who attain the age of twenty-one between the qualifying day for the register and the date when an Election is held ought to be safeguarded. The Parliamentary Secretary to the Home Office gave an undertaking that that problem would be looked at and, as a result, this Amendment has been put down in order that the rights of people of that age should be secured.
§ The intention of the new clause is to give to persons who attain the age of twenty-one years as nearly as may be the same voting rights as they would have had if the autumn register had not been abolished, In order to secure that object the arrangement proposed is that in the course of the annual house-to-house canvass, which takes place, as the Committee are aware, for the purpose of preparing the annual register, the names of people who are not twenty-one on the qualifying date, but who will be by June 15 of the following year (or April 30 in the case of Northern Ireland)—that is, by what would have been the qualifying date for the autumn register, had it been retained—should be collected as a special category; that these names should be included in the register in the ordinary way, but that a distinguishing mark should be placed against their names in 1381 the register; and that the people so included and distinguished in that way should be entitled to vote at elections where the date of the poll is after October 1—which is, of course, the date when the autumn register would have been published—but not before. This will preserve the rights which the persons in question would have had under the 1948 Act, but will not enable any of them to vote at a younger age than the youngest person included in the register in the ordinary way. The new clause looks rather complicated, but that is its object. I am sure your Lordships will agree that it is right that these young people should be allowed to vote, and I hope you will accept the Amendment. I beg to move.
§
Amendment moved—
After Clause 1, insert the said new clause.—(Lord Chorley.)
§ On Question, Amendment agreed to.
§ Clause 2 [Consequential amendments with respect to jurors books]:
§ LORD CHORLEYThis Amendment is purely consequential on the insertion of the new clause which your Lordships have just accepted. I beg to move.
§
Amendment moved—
Page 2, line 46, leave out ("foregoing provision") and insert ("provisions of section one").—(Lord Charley.)
§ On Question, Amendment agreed to.
§ Clause 2, as amended, agreed to.
§ Clause 3 [Power to make consequential amendments of local Acts]:
§ LORD CHORLEYThis Amendment is really consequential, but perhaps I ought to say a word or two about it. Clause 3, as it stands, gives power to amend local Acts; this Amendment will extend this power to cover Public Acts. This is necessary because the proposed new clause may affect the meaning of the word "elector" in other public Acts. The Statute Book contains a substantial number of Acts in which this word appears. In the short time available, it has been impossible for the draftsmen to go through the Statute Book, and it is necessary that we should have this rather wider wording. I hope your Lordships will agree that that is reasonable and will accept the Amendment. I beg to move.
§
Amendment moved—
Page 3, line 7, leave out from ("any") to second ("to") in line 8 and insert ("other Act (whether public general or local and whether passed before, or at the same time as, the passing of this Act)").—(Lord Chorley.)
§ On Question, Amendment agreed to.
§ Clause 3, as amended, agreed to.
§ Remaining clause agreed to.
§ LORD CHORLEY moved to insert as a new First Schedule:
§ "FIRST SCHEDULE
§ AMENDMENTS OF THE IR1PRESENTATION OF THE PEOPLE ACT, 1949, CONSEQUENTIAL ON SECTION Two OF TIES ACT
§ 1. Regulations made under section forty-two of the principal Act may contain provisions as to marking registers of parliamentary and local government electors in Great Britain so as to distinguish persons entitled to vote by virtue of subsection (1) of section two of this Act, and as to marking registers of parliamentary electors in Northern Ireland so as to distinguish persons entitled to vote by virtue of subsection (2) of that section, and section forty-five of the principal Act (which relates to registration appeals) shall have effect as if the reference in paragraph (c) of subsection (1) thereof to a mark indicating that a person registered is, or is not, registered as a service voter or as an non-resident included a reference to a, mark indicating that a person registered is, or is not, entitled to vote by virtue of subsection (1) or (2) of section two of this Act.
§ 2. A person falling within subsection (1) or (2) of section two of this Act shall not be guilty of an offence under paragraph (a) of subsection (1) of section forty-eight of the principal Act by reason only of his applying, while not of full age, to be treated as an absent voter, and shall not be guilty of an offence under paragraph (b) of that subsection by reason only of his applying, while not of full age, for the appointment of a proxy.
§ 3. For the purposes of rules 8 and 29 of the parliamentary elections rules (which relate respectively to the subscription of the nomination papers of candidates at parliamentary elections and the issue of official poll cards for the purposes of such elections), the expression 'elector,'—
- (a) in relation to a parliamentary election in a constituency in Great Britain, being an election at which the date fixed for the poll falls within the period beginning with the sixteenth day of Marsh in any year and ending with the first day of October in that year, shall not include a person who, by virtue of subsection (1) of section two of this Act, is registered as a parliamentary ejector in that constituency in the register to be used at that election or who, by virtue of that subsection, appears from the electors lists for that register to be entitled to be so registered;
- (b) in relation to a parliamentary election in a constituency in Northern Ireland, being
1383 an election at which the date fixed for the poll falls within the period beginning with the second day of April in any year and ending with the first day of October in that year, shall not include a person who, by virtue of subsection (2) of section two of this Act, is registered as a parliamentary elector in that constituency in the register to be used at that election or who, by virtue of that subsection, appears from the electors lists for that register to be entitled to be so registered;
§ 4. Notwithstanding anything in rule 38 of the parliamentary elections rules, rule 33 of the local elections rules in the Second Schedule to the principal Act or rule 31 of the local elections rules in the Third Schedule to that Act, in the case of—
- (a) a parliamentary or local government election in a constituency or electoral area in Great Britain, being an election at which the date fixed for the poll falls within the period beginning with the sixteenth day of March in any year and ending with the first day of October in that year; and
- (b) a parliamentary election in a constituency in Northern Ireland, being an election at which the date fixed for the poll falls within the period beginning with the second day of April in any year and ending with the first day of October in that year;
§ Provided that this paragraph shall not apply to a person applying for a ballot paper as proxy of a person entitled, apart from section two of this Act, to vote.
§ 5. The two last foregoing paragraphs shall,—
- (a) so far as they relate to local government elections in England and Wales, apply also for the purposes of the local elections rules in the Second Schedule to the principal Act in their application to the election of district and parish councillors in England
1384 and Wales, save in so far as it may be provided to the contrary by district election rules or parish election rules made under subsection (1) of section twenty-nine of that Act; and - (b) so far as they relate to local government elections in Scotland, apply also for the purposes of the local elections rules in the Third Schedule to that Act in their application to the election of elected district councillors in Scotland.
§ 6. The forms contained in the Appendices to the Second and Third Schedules to the principal Act shall be adapted so far as necessary to accord with the foregoing provisions of this Schedule.")
§ The noble Lord said: This new First Schedule is consequential on the new clause which we have just inserted. I beg to move.
§
Amendment moved—
Page 4, line 1, at end insert the said new Schedule.—(Lord Charley.)
§ On Question, Amendment agreed to.
§ First Schedule agreed to.
§ Second Schedule [Enactments repealed]:
§ LORD CHORLEYThis is merely a drafting Amendment, I beg to move.
§
Amendment moved—
Page 5, line 19, after ("Northern Ireland") insert ("shall be published not later than the fifteenth day of March").—(Lord Charley.)
§ On Question, Amendment agreed to.
§ Remaining Schedule, as amended, agreed to.
§ House resumed.
§ Then, Standing Order No. XXXIX having been suspended, Amendments reported; Bill read 3a, with the Amendments, and passed and returned to the Commons.