§ 112. Mr. Turtonasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department the size in acres of each county counstituency in England and Wales; and the number of motor cars the candidates in each constituency were respectively permitted to use on polling day.
§ Mr. EdeI regret that the information asked for in the first part of the Question is not readily available. As regards the second part, the maximum number of motor vehicles that Section 88 of the Representation of the People Act, 1949, permits each candidate to employ for taking voters to the poll is one for every 1,500 electors in a county constituency or one for every 2,500 electors in a borough constituency. The approximate number of electors on the 1949 register in each constituency in England and Wales was given in a Statement which I presented to Parliament in December—Cmd. 7840.
§ 113. Mr. Summersasked the 'Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will introduce legislation to make it compulsory for returning officers to acknowledge applications to vote by post.
§ Mr. EdeNo. The Representation of the People Regulations, 1949, require the registration officer to notify the applicant when he disallows an application; and a form is now available for notifying the applicant when an application is allowed. I will ask registration officers to use this form so far as is practicable, but I should not feel justified in making its use compulsory in every case.
§ 116. Mr. D. Scottasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many spoilt postal voting papers were returned in England and Wales at the last General Election.
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§ 125 and 127. Sir T. Mooreasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) if he will now give the total number of postal or proxy votes cast in the 1950 February election;
(2) what is the total number of voters on the absent voters registers throughout the country.
§ Mr. EdeThe following figures are provisional and relate only to England and Wales. The number of people entitled to vote by post at the General Election was approximately 434,000. The number of postal votes returned before the close of the poll was approximately 409,200. Of these, approximately 8,700 were rejected because the declaration of identity was not returned or on one of the other prescribed grounds. The rest—approximately 400,500—were included in the count. The number of proxy votes is not known.
§ 122. Mr. Marloweasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he has now come to any decision as to whether persons whose names are not on the new electoral register may claim to have their names included upon satisfying the electoral registration officer as to their residential qualification at the relevant date last November.
§ Mr. EdeI have considered the hon. Member's suggestion very carefully, but my conclusion is that no provision for correcting the register after publication, whether by means of a supplementary list or otherwise, would be justified.
§ 126. Sir T. Mooreasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will now give the returns made by agents of election expenses for the February, 1950, election.
§ Mr. EdeThe time allowed under Section 69 of the Representation of the People Act, 1949, for making these returns has not yet run out. The information will be collected and presented to Parliament in the same way as after previous General Elections. This will be done as soon as possible, but it is likely to take some time.
§ Mr. Nieldasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will introduce legislation to enable him to require that the ballot paper to be sent 141W to a person entitled to vote by post in an election shall state the political party of each of the candidates named upon it.
§ Mr. EdeNo. As recently as 1948 Parliament enacted a prohibition of party labels on ballot papers, and I am not prepared to propose that this decision should now be reversed.