Registration: Qualified Voters (Hansard, 6 February 1997)

§ The Minister of State, Home Office (Baroness Blatch)
My Lords, the main effort to register electors takes place during the annual canvass conducted by electoral registration officers in the autumn. Last autumn the Government spent £750,000 on television advertisements encouraging the return of electoral registration forms. Any eligible elector who may have been missed off the register can make a claim to be added to it after publication. However, those who are too apathetic or who are determined not to register cannot realistically be forced to do so.

§ Lord Hylton
My Lords, I thank the Minister for her Answer, but is it not the case that some 2 million persons are not on the register? That represents nearly 5 per cent. of the total electorate. Will the Government take special steps to register homeless families and individuals, students, gypsies and others who are entitled to vote but who are unlikely to be able to do so?

§ Baroness Blatch
My Lords, I have already said that we spend considerable sums of money on public advertising to persuade people to register to vote. I pay tribute to the electoral registration officers who do everything that they can. It is a question of permanency of address. Even people living in the open air or those who are sleeping rough are entitled to vote if they can convince a local registration officer that they are permanently in the area. A great deal is done to persuade people to register. The noble Lord mentioned the figure of 5 per cent. It has been 5 per cent. now for about six years. The number of people who do not appear on the register has therefore been fairly constant.

§ Lord Merlyn-Rees
My Lords, given that 14th February is the date of the publication of the register, does that mean that if during the general election campaign whole streets are missed off, as often happens—not due to weakness on the part of those registering, but due to weaknesses in electoral registration departments—nothing can be done about it?

§ Baroness Blatch
My Lords, that is not absolutely the case. Names can be added up to the first day of every month if they do not appear on the register as a result of an omission or a mistake. In the run-up to a general election, however, we continue that practice right up to nomination day so that mistakes on the register can be put right and omissions corrected.

Lord Monks well
My Lords, bearing in mind that it is very important that as many people as possible are registered to vote and that they do vote, particularly in the forthcoming general election, would it not be useful for every Minister, whenever he or she speaks in public, to repeat the following slogan, "Voting can change things. Register to vote and use your vote for a better future"?

§ Baroness Blatch
"And vote Conservative!" My Lords, in this country we are lucky to enjoy the right to vote. That right is very precious. We spend considerable sums of money on reminding people of the importance of registering to vote. To register 95 per cent. of those people eligible to vote is no mean achievement. We continue to make special efforts to get the remaining 5 per cent. onto the register. But there are people who do not want to vote. Some of them are religious objectors. There are those who cannot be bothered to vote; there are others who, for one reason or another, simply do not know about it. Our efforts will continue in that direction.

§ Lord Dubs
My Lords, does the Minister agree that there are many young people in this country who are unable to register to vote because of the housing difficulties that they face and the necessity to move to find beds? Will the Minister advise local authorities to make a particular effort to encourage or help young people to vote in the next election?

§ Baroness Blatch
My Lords, I have already said what efforts are made by electoral registration officers to enable people to provide addresses for voting purposes. I am not sure that I fully understand the noble Lord's point. Young people, whether they are in colleges or moving from job to job, will be somewhere on 10th October of each year when they have to meet the residential qualification. Therefore, they or their parents or families will register that fact. We advertise in cinemas, clubs and newspapers. Electoral registration officers do a great deal of outreach work to help people register on the voting list. The fact that we achieve that in 95 per cent. of cases is no mean achievement. We will continue to concentrate our efforts on the 5 per cent. who, for one reason or another, do not appear on the register.

§ Lord Cledwyn of Penrhos
My Lords, does the noble Baroness agree that the time has come to give Members of this House the vote?

§ Viscount Ullswater
My Lords, if a treetop protestor has a secure or settled address for the purposes of obtaining the jobseeker's allowance, is a treetop a suitable position from which to register to vote?

§ Baroness Blatch
My Lords, I am told that treetops are not now accepted as a residential qualification for 1766 the purposes of registering for the jobseeker's allowance. But if those who sleep rough—including those who sleep in treetops—can convince the electoral registration officer that there is permanency about their situation, the officer has discretion as to whether or not they should be registered to vote.

§ Lord Stallard
My Lords, can the noble Baroness tell the House how much is spent on trying to persuade Brits who live overseas to register to vote? What has been the result of that expenditure?

§ Baroness Blatch
My Lords, we spend nothing. About four or five years ago we spent a lump sum not on persuading such people to vote, but simply letting them know that there had been a change in the registration arrangements. We do not spend any money on advertising those arrangements to people who live overseas.