Electoral Procedures: Working Party Report (Hansard, 19 October 1999)

§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Home Office (Lord Bassam of Brighton)

My right honourable friend the Home Secretary has today placed a copy of the working party's report in the Library, and it will also be published on the Home Office's Internet web site.

My right honourable friend the Home Secretary congratulates his honourable friend the Member for Knowsley North and Sefton East, now Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Northern Ireland Office, and all the members of his working party on a report that will be a major landmark in this country's electoral history. The existing procedures have served us well but are now well over a hundred years old and do not fully reflect modern conditions of life and work. The working party has gone out of its way to ensure that the integrity and openness of our electoral system will still be maintained into the next century.

My right honourable friend the Home Secretary is very pleased to see the cross-party consensus that was achieved within the working party, as this is essential to any aspect of electoral legislation.

My right honourable friend commends the working party's report to the House. The majority of its recommendations will require primary legislation, and my right honourable friend will be seeking the earliest practical opportunity for a Bill. He looks forward to cross-party co-operation that will ensure a swift and smooth passage for this excellent set of proposals.