HC Deb 16 January 2003 vol 397 cc787-8W
Mr. Beggs

To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland which political parties gave commitments at Weston Park in respect of the new Northern Ireland policing legislation and on other proposals presented. [86454]

Jane Kennedy

The agreement at Weston Park was that between two Governments. Together with the Irish Government, we published, on 1 August 2001, our joint proposals on four areas—policing, normalisation, the stability of the institutions and decommissioning—

Mr. Browne

The Electoral Fraud (Northern Ireland) Act 2002 requires an application for voter registration in Northern Ireland to be signed by, include the date of birth, and the national insurance number (or a statement that the applicant does not have a national insurance number) of, each of the persons to whom the form or application relates. Applicants are also required to make a statement that they have been resident in Northern Ireland for the requisite three-month period before the date of their application and to state any other address in the United Kingdom in respect of which they are, or have applied to be, registered. The Chief Electoral Officer is required to remove a person's name from the Electoral Register if their application does not contain any of the above information. These changes came into effect at the Annual Canvass conducted on 15 October 2002. The new Electoral Register was published on 29 November 2002.

132,000 fewer names appeared on the 29 November Electoral Register than appeared on the previous register of 15 August. Anyone among that 132,000 who is eligible to be registered will be able to do so via Rolling Registration before the next scheduled Assembly election on 1 May 2003.

The figures in the attached table have been provided by the Chief Electoral Officer and are available on the Electoral Office website: www.electoralofficeni.gov.uk

together with a draft statement which the parties would issue in the event that the overall package was acceptable. In the event not all the parties accepted those proposals.

All the changes to the policing legislation that the Government had undertaken to consider in the context of the review of policing arrangements were set out in the updated Patten Implementation Plan, published on 17 August 2001.