§ 8.55 p.m.
§ VISCOUNT COLVILLE OF CULROSS rose to move, That the Representation of the People Regulations 1973, be approved. The noble Viscount said: My Lords, these Regulations are fairly limited in the change that they make to the Regulations of 1969, and indeed, before April 1 of next year the whole of the 1969 Regulations will need to be replaced by revised provisions taking account of the new arrangements for registration under the Local Government Act of last year. So the amending Regulations now before the House are designed only to meet the immediate needs in relation to the county and district elections this year, and to canvass the preparation of the electors' list which will take place next autumn. They apply only to England and Wales. Scotland has its own separate legislation with which these Regulations do not interfere.
§ There are three matters in the Regulations. The first is in Regulation 3, which provides for right honourable and honourable Members of another place to be given as of right a free copy of the register for their constituency. It was welcomed by them. I gather that in some cases the copy which might in the normal course of events come their way appeared to have got into other hands, and they were glad to find that they were going to get one under these provisions as of right. The second matter is in Regulations 5 and 7, which make technical amendments necessary to allow the existing arrangements for postal voting to apply for elections for the new counties and districts under the 1972 Local Government Act. We shall need those for the elections fairly soon. The third, and possibly the most important, 982 matter is in Regulations 4 and 6, and indeed this is affected by the Schedule, too, because they deal with a different matter and will enable the new basis of jury service to come into operation when the next electoral register is published—the one compiled in October. They follow directly from that part of the Criminal Justice Act which we inserted in this House, the effect of which is, apart from certain specific exceptions, that all electors will be qualified to serve on a jury if they are between the ages of 18 and 65. These people will be liable to receive a jury summons, and the Crown Court will have to he satisfied that the person is otherwise qualified for jury service.
§ Under the 1972 Criminal Justice Act the registration officer will have to supply the Crown Court with copies of the register showing the people who are between these two ages. People under 18 are already shown on the published register, but in the case of people over 65 new arrangements are necessary, and the Act enables the registration officer to get information for this purpose. I think we discussed this in the House at the time. This is achieved by Regulation 4 and the new Form A prescribed in Regulation 6 and appearing in the Schedule to the Order. This form has a new column relating to jury service, and a tick is to be put in it if the elector is over 65. The registration officer then informs the Crown Court, by marking the copy of the register which he sends them, that all the electors who have been ticked are over 65. But those markings will appear only on the copies of the register sent to the Crown Court, and not on those on display for people to look at in the Post Office, or wherever they may be. Indeed, those latter registers will no longer contain the "J" sign—the jury marking at the moment—or any indication as to whether somebody is qualified for jury service.
§ We were—and I think this was widely understood at the time we were dealing with the Criminal Justice Act—anxious to spare people from 65 onwards from the worry that a jury summons might in some cases cause them, or indeed from the necessity to complete some questionaire and having to say whether they were over the age for jury service. But at the same time, in order to ensure that there was 983 not wide knowledge of who in the community was elderly and perhaps not so able to defend themselves, and on the general grounds of privacy, we did not think it right to publish such things in the register. I can well appreciate that even under those arrangements there may be occasional difficulties when householders have to complete the jury service column and they may have to trespass slightly on the privacy of people in their household when putting down their age. But I should have thought this would cause less difficulty than the other problems. A householder will be able to use his discretion and he will know that anybody whose name is not ticked in the last column will be liable for jury service and will have to explain their way out of it. Of course, it is an offence to give false information in completing Form A, so I 984 do not think that anybody is likely to put a tick falsely in the final column in order to try to relieve somebody of jury service.
§ That, then, is the scale of the Regulations. A copy of the register is available for each Member of another place; there is provision for postal voting at the new local elections, and a new Form A for completion of the electoral register to bring jury service within the provisions of the Criminal Justice Act of last year. My Lords, I beg to move.
§ Moved, That the Representation of the People Regulations 1973, be approved.—(Viscount Colville of Culross.)
§ On Question, Motion agreed to.
§ House adjourned at one minute past nine o'clock.