HL Deb 17 March 1983 vol 440 cc833-5

3.28 p.m.

Lord Glenarthur rose to move, That the regulations laid before the House on 22nd February be approved.

The noble Lord said: My Lords, I beg to move that the Representation of the People Regulations 1983 be approved. I hope it will be convenient for your Lordships to consider at the same time the Representation of the People (Northern Ireland) Regulations 1983. Before I deal with the substance of the regulations, I should like to comment briefly on the point that was raised by the Joint Committee on Statutory Instruments in its fifteenth report, that the regulations were made before the parent Act, the Representation of the People Act 1983, was published. I can assure your Lordships that there was no sinister motive in doing this. As the Home Office stated in the memorandum supplied to the Joint Committee, and as my honourable and learned friend the Minister of State assured the Standing Committee on Statutory Instruments in another place, the provisions of the 1983 Act dealing with the electoral registration of voluntary patients in mental hospitals come into effect on 1st April, and it was essential that the necessary regulations should be in force on that date.

The purpose of consolidation is to make things less complicated. Rather than confuse your Lordships and those in another place with two sets of regulations in quick succession—one dealing with the registration of voluntary patients and the other a partial consolidation of existing regulations—we thought it best to ask for Parliament's approval on a fully consolidated set of regulations at the earliest opportunity. I am glad to see that the Stationery Office has been able to print the Act so that it is available to your Lordships today.

The purpose of these regulations is threefold. First, they consolidate the existing Representation of the People Regulations, which govern the registration of electors and absent voting at parliamentary elections in England, Wales and Northern Ireland and at local government elections in England and Wales. Secondly, they supplement the new provisions for the electoral registration of mental hospital patients introduced by the Mental Health (Amendment) Act 1982. Thirdly, they introduce what I hope are uncontroversial changes which have been agreed between the political parties and the local authority associations. We have taken the opportunity of compiling both sets of regulations in a more logical and convenient order than was the case hitherto. We have reduced the number of prescribed forms and we have made a number of minor drafting amendments designed to express the intention of the regulations more clearly. These consolidated regulations follow the consolidation of existing electoral law in the Representation of the People Act 1983, which came into force on 15th March. I understand that your Lordships will shortly be invited to approve similar Scottish regulations.

Your Lordships will recall that the Mental Health (Amendment) Act 1982 introduced a new procedure allowing voluntary patients in psychiatric hospitals to make a declaration entitling them to be entered in the electoral register for an address outside the hospital. Regulation 10 requires a patient's declaration to be attested by a member of the hospital staff appointed by managers of the hospital and enables the hospital to send the declaration to the electoral registration officer on the patient's behalf. Regulation 15 tells the electoral registration officer how to enter a patient's name in the register. Voluntary patients will be able to make a declaration from 1st April for inclusion in the register which comes into force on 16th February 1984.

Of the other changes introduced by these regulations, the most important concerns the timetable for absent voting. Following discussions with the political parties, electoral registration officers and local authority associations, it has been agreed that in future the deadline for the receipt of absent voting applications at both parliamentary and local government elections will be noon on the eleventh day before polling day, not counting Saturdays, Sundays, Bank Holidays and other breaks. This means that at a parliamentary election the deadline will move from midnight on the Thursday two weeks before polling day to noon on the previous day; that is to say, Wednesday. Because of changes in the parliamentary elections timetable introduced in 1981, the elector will in fact have one day longer to submit his application than he did at the last general election in 1979. It is too late to bring the new timetable into force at this year's May ordinary local elections, but it will come into force immediately afterwards.

The other changes of substance are increases in certain fees and fines prescribed by the regulations, including the price of spare copies of the electoral register and of copies of a return or declaration of a candidate's election expenses. Regulation 76 increases the fines for offences under the regulations, including failure to comply with or giving false information to the electoral registration officer, to £100. This is the maximum increase which can be made under existing provisions.

When your Lordships were considering the Bill consolidating the Representation of the People Acts, my noble friend Lord Renton was kind enough to thank the Government for their efforts on what I am sure we can all agree was a highly complicated and long overdue piece of work. These regulations are part and parcel of the same exercise, and they should serve to make things easier for all concerned with fighting, running or voting at elections. I commend them to your Lordships.

Moved, That the regulations laid before the House on 22nd February be approved.—(Lord Glenarthur.)

Lord Underhill

My Lords, we are grateful to the noble Lord for outlining the provisions of these regulations, and as they have been the subject of consultation with the political parties and with the bodies concerned with the registration officers, generally speaking we are satisfied with the regulations. We are very pleased to have the regulations at this stage because all those concerned with elections—registration officers, returning officers and constituency voluntary workers of all kinds, including the election agents—always like to see the regulations in one booklet rather than having to refer to other documents. Despite the controversy over the registration of voluntary mental patients, as reflected in the joint committee's report, we are delighted that it has been possible to include that in these regulations.

The only question I would wish to raise is on the last item in the explanatory note: that the regulations no longer prescribe the forms required for the service voter's declaration. I wonder what is the reason for this, because it is an important form and it saves only one sheet of paper; if it is for a spouse it will save two sheets. It is important at the outset for those concerned with elections to have all these forms in one booklet. Therefore, I am wondering what the particular reason is for not prescribing that particular form.

Lord Glenarthur

My Lords, I am grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Underhill, for the welcome he has given to this order. The service declaration forms—forms J, K, L and M of the 1974 regulations—have been omitted from the forms prescribed by the 1983 regulations for England and Wales. The prescribed forms are unnecessary as the contents of a service declaration form are set out by the Representation of the People Act, 1983. This still means that any person who knowingly makes a false statement in his service declaration form will continue to be guilty of an offence under the Perjury Act 1911. For similar reasons, no form is prescribed in the regulations for a patient's declaration, and I can tell the noble Lord that Her Majesty's Stationery Office will continue to print and supply blank registration forms. I hope that covers the point that he has raised.

On Question, Motion agreed to.