HL Deb 11 July 2003 vol 651 cc605-9

12.58 p.m.

Lord Filkin rose to move, That the draft regulations laid before the House on 9th June be approved [22nd Report from, the Joint Committee].

The noble Lord said: My Lords, with the permission of the House I shall speak both to this order and to the Scottish order. Such economy may be of assistance to the House.

The purpose of the regulations, as I expect has already been well covered under the Northern Ireland regulations by my noble and learned friend the Lord President, is essentially to prescribe the form which electoral registration officers should use for the annual canvass of electors which takes place each autumn. The regulations are necessary to ensure that we fulfil our obligations in relation to the voting rights of citizens of member states of the EU who are resident here. These directives give nationals of member states of the European Union the right to vote and stand as candidates in elections to the European Parliament and in local elections. As the House knows. 10 new states are expected to join the European Union on 1st May 2004. We need therefore to ensure that citizens of those states who live here are able to benefit from these voting rights provisions.

The regulations we are considering prescribe a new form of canvass for the annual canvass which allows nationals of accession states who live here to be added to the electoral register. Because the accession states do not formally join the EU until 1st May 2004. there would be no time under the current law to enable nationals of those states to be registered as electors between then and the date of the election, on 10th June 2004. Of course, had the timing been different—for instance, if the states had acceded on 1st September this year—then these regulations would not have been needed.

Citizens of accession states would have been entitled, as full EU members, to register in the same way as French and German citizens can do now. As it is, however, given the timing, special provision is needed to permit their names to he included on the register in advance of membership. So should—as we expect—the member states accede by 1st May, those people would then be in a position, if they were resident here and had registered, to vote in the local elections. We have already provided a legal framework to allow for this in regulations that came into force for the whole of the United Kingdom on 9th July 2003, and those regulations modified the current legislation for this purpose.

We believe that the regulations are fully compatible with the ECHR and the canvass form itself is largely based on the existing form and is, I hope, self-explanatory. The regulations ensure that we are fulfilling our obligations to citizens of accession states who live here by allowing them to register so that they can vote after their countries accede on 1st May 2004. I commend the regulations to the House. I beg to move.

Moved, That the draft regulations laid before the House on 9th June be approved [22nd Report from the Joint Committee].—(Lord Filkin.)

Baroness Hanham

My Lords, as with the previous regulations relating to Northern Ireland, which fall within the same scope, we fully support these proposals.

A couple of questions arise. Based on previous experience of the registration of European nationals, is there any idea of the percentage of people who sign up for registration? The general experience of those who go round canvassing at elections is that, on the whole, ignorance is sublime for anyone from another state within the European Union. More often than not, such people are not signed up and do not know that they can vote, particularly as regards local elections; and they are dubious as to whether they can vote in European elections.

While the registration form is fine, the promotional material to encourage people to enter their names on the register is very poor. That follows on from the general feeling that the canvass for registration does not always scoop all the problems. I know that most local authorities make big efforts to ensure that people are on the electoral register, but sometimes an even greater effort is required. Does the Minister have an idea of the level of turnout or representation for those from other EU states; and what extra efforts can be made, particularly in regard to some of the accession countries, where people will be new to the European Union and to democracy in the way that we understand it? What efforts will be made to encourage them to put their names on the voting register? Those remarks apply to the regulations for England and Wales and for Scotland. I shall not speak to the Scottish order.

Lord Rennard

My Lords, again, the regulations are obviously necessary, and therefore welcome. I, too, think that the registration forms are relatively simple; and that helps the process. Comparing the form with that for Northern Ireland leads me to look forward to a time when, having moved to individual registration in England, Scotland and Wales, which already exists in Northern Ireland, perhaps before too long we shall move to a point where the registration process can be completed entirely over the Internet as opposed to having paper-based systems. But that is for the future.

I have one technical question on the process. I am wondering how those with access to the voting register would know from the register whether people are from EU accession states. Will that be marked in some way? We should be wrong to treat them as being on a list of voters perhaps even before their country's accession is complete. Their names will appear on the electoral register as though they are entitled to vote, but perhaps the member state will not yet have joined the Union. Will the entries on the register be coded in some way; and, if so, could that be on a national basis, so that for each register the basis on which such people were included could be readily understood?

I should not, for example, like to see nationalities coded on the register. That could be quite dangerous. But the situation will be different for each of the accession states. I wonder how that might be indicated if, for example, a Hungarian citizen was on the register in anticipation of entitlement to vote in local and European elections and a local election occurred before Hungary joined the European Union. How should we then know whether the person was entitled to vote? I should be grateful if the Minister would address that issue.

Lord Filkin

My Lords, I thank both the noble Baroness and the noble Lord on the Front Benches opposite for their support for the regulations. It is appreciated.

The noble Baroness, Lady Hanham, asked whether we knew the percentage of people who sign up. The short answer is no. One clearly has some understanding of the number who do sign up; the problem is knowing exactly who is on the base. I suppose that the census may start to give us some indication of that in that it asks people to declare their country of origin, which might be a pointer. Let me reflect on whether there is anything further that we can add to that.

The thrust of the noble Baroness's question was important; namely, how we try to ensure that people who are eligible to vote actually register, and actually vote. Every household will receive a form explaining what EU citizens should do. We must make sure, in addition, that it is explicit as regards potential future citizens of member states of the EU, not merely the current ones. In addition, the Electoral Commission will be publicising the new right for citizens of accession states as part of its publicity processes.

On the wider level, that is part of the responsibilities that one would expect electoral registration officers to have particularly in mind this year in terms of how they seek to obtain a full register, and to promote the importance of registering and voting. I agree with the noble Baroness on that point.

The question of electronic registration raised by the noble Lord, Lord Rennard, is an important one for the future. It is part of our general thrust that we should move towards allowing electronic access to government functions as far as possible. I shall reflect as to what extent that is the current plan and write to the noble Lord if that is of interest to him.

As regards the issue of the full register, as the noble Lord well knows, the full register is available only to political parties and only within the confines of their work for canvassing and not for divulging wider than that. Clearly, the full register has in some way to carry an indication that the person is from an accession state; otherwise, the electoral registration officer will not be in a position to identify who is not, should he need to act on that. I should expect that the entry would not divulge a person's full nationality, but I do not know. I shall see whether we can be specific on that point and shall write to the noble Lord. I take his point. I am certain that it would not be possible to identify on the public register that someone was, for example, a Pole. Without being too prone to fears about xenophobia, one would have some worries about that.

With regard to the noble Lord's final question, if country X did not join the European Union and complete all the processes by 1st May, there is a facility in place for the Government to inform electoral registration officers formally of that fact and for them to be able to delete names from the register of those eligible to vote in the June local government elections so that they are not eligible voters. That has been planned for, as the House would expect. I commend the regulations to the House.

On Question, Motion agreed to.