§ 12.10 p.m.
§ Baroness Blatch rose to move, That the draft regulations and order laid before the House on 13th February be approved [12th Report from the Joint Committee].
The noble Baroness said: My Lords, these measures are uncontroversial and seek to made three improvements in the arrangements relating to absent voting at local government, parliamentary and European parliamentary elections. One set of regulations introduces changes for local government and parliamentary elections in England and Wales, and a second set extends the arrangements to European parliamentary elections in these countries but covers Scotland as well. Three measures apply the changes to elections in Northern Ireland and one deals with parliamentary and local government elections in Scotland.
At each election a significant number of electors is unable to cast a vote because they have been unable to apply for a postal or a proxy vote before the deadline. Under the Representation of the People Regulations 1986, this deadline is noon on the thirteenth working day before polling. This means that if the election campaign is relatively short, there is very little time indeed for electors to make applications based on their inability to go to the polling station in person, and the resulting frustration and anger which these electors feel is very real.
The draft regulations and the order relax the deadline from noon on the thirteenth working day before polling to 5 p.m. on the eleventh working day which will allow electors an additional two and a half days to make their applications. This is the maximum relaxation which electoral administrators have advised us is compatible with their discharge of the necessary administrative functions before polling day. It will not, however, mean any reduction in the extent to which electoral administrators are able to verify applications where they 563 feel a need to do so. This relaxation is intended to come into force seven days after the regulations are made. That means that it will be in force for the coming general election, and I believe that this additional opportunity for electors to obtain an absent vote when they need one will be widely welcomed by electors themselves and by candidates.
The draft measures also make two other changes on the attestation of certain applications for an absent vote. First, they widen the scope for nurses to attest applications for an absent vote made on grounds of physical incapacity. Currently, an elector who applies for an absent vote on a continuing basis because of a physical incapacity which prevents their attending the polling station must have the application attested. This applies also to electors who fall ill after the general closing date and make late applications on unforeseen health grounds. The Representation of the People Regulations 1986 allow doctors, nurses and Christian Science practitioners to attest such applications but among nurses restricts the ability to attest to first level nurses. The unanimous view of the Royal College of Nursing, the NHS Executive and the UK Central (Nursing) Council is that this is now unnecessarily restrictive. Any registered nurse should be both professionally capable and professionally accountable for their actions in making such an attestation, and the regulations therefore provide for any registered nurse to make the attestation which some electors require. This will make it slightly easier for electors to get their applications attested and thereby to secure their absent vote with no loss of professional reliability.
Lastly, the measures seek to close off a potential area of abuse in arrangements for attestations. Occasionally, albeit rarely, there have been allegations that batches of applications for absent votes for a number of constituents have been attested by the same person, seemingly with little or no knowledge of the applicants. The Government are keen to ensure that everyone who needs an absent vote should get one with the least possible inconvenience. But we must also guard against abuse of this system. The measures therefore focus on the possibility of mass attestations by requiring any doctor, nurse, or Christian Science practitioner who attests an application to confirm on the application form that they are treating or giving care to the applicant for the incapacity which forms the basis of the application. This change is drafted to come into effect for England, Wales and Scotland only, since it is already the practice in Northern Ireland and reports from there indicate that it works well.
The two changes of practice in attestation are drafted to come into force in Great Britain three months after the regulations are made. This is in order to allow time both for a period of notice of the changes to be registered with electoral administrators, and for amended forms to be printed centrally and ordered by those electoral registration officers who obtain their stocks from the Stationery Office. As I indicated, in Northern Ireland the statement of treatment is already required, and so the sole change of practice in attestation there will come into force after seven days. This will not affect any elector's ability 564 to get an absent vote at the general election. Anyone who needs one should be able to get one on a one-off basis and the regulations will allow them a longer period to do that.
There is one other small difference which I should mention between the provisions relating to Northern Ireland and those for the rest of the United Kingdom. The Northern Ireland provisions update existing electoral law in the light of changes in the definitions of residential care and nursing homes in Northern Ireland. The definitions used at present in Northern Ireland electoral law were repealed by the Registered Homes (Northern Ireland) Order 1992, and consequent updating of the electoral law of Northern Ireland is needed. This is done by the Northern Ireland regulations and order and is a technical updating not applying to the rest of the UK.
The two sets of European parliamentary regulation simply apply to those elections the changes which I have described as applying to local government and parliamentary elections. One set of European parliamentary regulations extends the provisions in England, Wales and Scotland, and a second to Northern Ireland.
I believe that these regulations are uncontroversial in that they increase, in time for the general election, the ability of electors to obtain an absent vote when it is needed. This should reduce the number of electors who miss the deadline, and hence reduce the number of those who wish to vote but who cannot do so.
Secondly, the regulations introduce two focused changes in procedures for the attestation of absent vote applications, one further extending flexibility for electors and the other closing off a possible avenue of abuse. I beg to move.
Moved, That the draft regulations and order laid before the House on 13th February be approved [12th Report from the Joint Committee].—[Baroness Blatch.]
§ Lord McIntosh of HaringeyMy Lords, our only regret is that the Minister did not take the opportunity to announce the date of the general election and speed the Prime Minister on his way to the Palace. We support the measures.
§ On Question, Motion agreed to.