Westminster Elections: Voting System (Hansard, 20 January 2004)

§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs (Lord Filkin)
My Lords, no decision has yet been made on the timing and structure of the review.

§ Lord Lipsey
My Lords—

§ Lord Greaves
My Lords, I have prepared two supplementary questions, one in the event that the Answer was yes and one in the event that it was no. However, I am not sure which Answer I have been given except that the Minister responding to the Question is not the constitutional affairs Minister. Will the Minister confirm the report in the Independent of 23 December last year that states: SECRET TALKS between the Government and the Liberal Democrats over reforming the voting system have begun in a move which could see the abolition of the first-past-the-post method"? I am not asking about the last part of that quotation but about the first part. The article continues: The review is expected to be co-ordinated by the [wrong] Department", but nevertheless we now know which department it will be. Will the Minister confirm that a promise of such a review was to be found in the Labour manifesto at the previous general election? Will he also confirm that his reply meant that such a review is to take place but the Government have not yet decided when and how?

§ Lord Filkin
My Lords, the 2001 manifesto clearly set out our commitment to review the experience of the new systems and the Jenkins report to assess whether changes might be made to the actual system of elections to the House of Commons. As to the report 899 in the Independent, which I read with interest as one always does with newspaper reports, I think that the noble Lord is much better placed than I am to check with Charles Kennedy whether he considers that to have been an accurate newspaper report.

Lord Renton
My Lords, will the Minister bear in mind that what are referred to in the Question as "Westminster elections" are elections to the sovereign Parliament of the United Kingdom, and that it is important that the government of the day should have the choice of the timing of those elections within five years rather than that choice becoming subject to any kind of European influence?

§ Lord Filkin
My Lords, on the first point, the Question is, indeed, about the electoral system to the sovereign Parliament of the United Kingdom. more specifically to the House of Commons. On the second point, there is no focus to my knowledge of this being about any European regulation or directive.

§ Lord Dubs
My Lords, in considering the review, will my noble friend give particular attention to the Westminster voting system in Northern Ireland where the situation is rather different from the rest of the United Kingdom, where there is a different voting system for European elections anyway and where a fairer result might be achieved by a change in the system?

§ Lord Filkin
My Lords, I am well aware that in Northern Ireland for all elections apart from elections to the House of Commons STV is the electoral system that is used. One knows well the history and reasons for that having been introduced in the Province. No doubt that is one of the issues that would be on the list for consideration when a review is carried out.

§ Lord Henley
My Lords, has the Minister made any assessment of the impact of the European Parliamentary Elections Act 1999 which brought in closed lists and which was valiantly opposed by my late noble friend Lord Mackay of Ardbrecknish, as the noble Lord will remember? Has he made any assessment of the impact of that on all elections and on voter turnout in those elections?

§ Lord Filkin
My Lords, I think the likelihood of there being an impact from the closed list system regarding European elections on other electoral systems is fairly remote. As to the impact of closed list systems on turnout, voter confidence or any of the other criteria that one might wish to inspect as part of an assessment of how a different form of PR is operating, it is a little too early to judge. We shall be best placed to do so post-June 2004 when we shall then have seen two rounds of European elections on a proportionate basis. No doubt the academics and others will inspect those results with considerable interest as a consequence.

§ Lord Lipsey
My Lords—

§ Lord Goodhart
My Lords, the system of all-postal voting which is to be piloted in the European elections makes secrecy of the ballot far less certain. Does the Minister agree that before we go ahead with rolling out this pilot into the Westminster elections, we must have full research into possible voting abuses? Does he accept that that research must involve proper random sampling of the voters to check on possibilities of personation or pressure on electors and that the investigation must not just rely on complaints?

§ Lord Filkin
My Lords, I think that the noble Lord's ball is out of court but in a spirit of charity I shall nevertheless respond. Clearly we see the benefit in piloting in the European elections in June the further operation of an all-postal voting system, as the House well knows. However, the noble Lord will also be well aware that the Electoral Commission has signalled some important issues for consideration, one of which he referred to, before there is an introduction of universal postal balloting in a Westminster parliamentary election.

§ Lord Lipsey
My Lords, will my noble friend forgive my over exuberance as chair of Make Votes Count in welcoming his confirmation that in this Parliament—unlike the previous one, I am afraid—we shall carry out our manifesto pledge to stage a review? Will he ensure that when that review is carried out it takes full account of the superb work being done by the independent commission on precisely this subject? It was set up by the Constitution Unit, under the chair of David Butler and Peter Riddell, and will help to prepare the ground for a review that is appropriately timed for after the next round of elections.

§ Lord Filkin
My Lords, I am sure that the independent review of proportional representation systems by the Constitution Unit will be extremely interesting, both to the Government and to those in politics and academic life who take an interest in electoral systems. We look forward to seeing its report in March. One should put on record the Government's remarkable achievement in bringing in proportional representation. Every single new governmental organisation introduced since 1997 has had a proportional representation system. Without being too party political, we have seen more PR systems introduced by this Government than by any other party, or combination of parties, in the past 100 years.

§ Lord Greaves
My Lords, if the Minister cannot tell us when the review is due to start, when will the Government decide when the review will start?

§ Lord Filkin
My Lords, in the immortal words of Stanley Baldwin, "wait and see".