Extract from Opposition Day debate on Prisons Oliver Colvile
(Plymouth, Sutton and Devonport) (Con): ...As my right hon. Friend
may know, I represent an inner-city constituency. A couple of years
ago, on a visit to a Salvation Army centre, I came across someone
who had been in prison, had become institutionalised by the
experience, and therefore wanted to go back fairly soon
afterwards... To read the whole debate, CLICK HERE Voter
Registration Question 3.15...Request free trial
Extract from Opposition
Day debate on Prisons
(Plymouth, Sutton and
Devonport) (Con): ...As my right hon. Friend may know, I
represent an inner-city constituency. A couple of years ago, on a
visit to a Salvation Army centre, I came across someone who had
been in prison, had become institutionalised by the experience,
and therefore wanted to go back fairly soon afterwards...
To read the whole debate, CLICK
HERE
Voter Registration
Question
3.15 pm
Tabled by
-
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what action they are taking
to increase the number of citizens registered to vote.
-
(Lab)
My Lords, on behalf of my noble friend Lady Kennedy of
Cradley, and at her request, I beg leave to ask the
Question standing in her name on the Order Paper. I refer
the House to my registered interests.
-
(Con)
That is a request the noble Lord was not in a position to
refuse. The Government allocated £7.5 million to promote
registration prior to the EU referendum, and a record 46.5
million people are now registered to vote. Online
registration has made it easier and faster to make an
application to register, with 75% of the 23 million
applications made since the introduction of individual
electoral registration using this method. The Government
aim to further streamline the annual registration canvass
and to work closely with the electoral community and civil
society organisations to remove barriers that deter
underregistered groups from joining the register.
-
My Lords, significant local elections are taking place this
May, and millions of people are still not registered to
vote. What are the Government going to do about this? Their
response to date has been feeble, ineffective and lacking
in any policy perspective other than to do as little as
possible.
-
With respect, I would reject the accusations that we have
done very little. As I said, we allocated £7.5 million last
May, ahead of the EU referendum, for a whole range of voter
registration activities, and we now have a number of
targeted initiatives for those who are
underregistered—black and ethnic minority groups, social
tenants, tenants in the private rented sector, young people
and students. We are developing those initiatives in order
to drive up the numbers registered, which, as I said a
moment ago, now stand at a record level.
-
(LD)
My Lords, what would be the problem with amending the
letter sent to young people informing them of their
national insurance number so that it also told them how to
use that number to register online? What would be the
problem with extending across Great Britain the system
successfully used in all Northern Ireland schools whereby
the electoral registration process is undertaken at
schools, or with extending across all universities in the
UK the system used at Sheffield University for combining
electoral registration with registration at the university,
thereby ensuring that 76% of its students are registered to
vote, compared with only 13% in other HE institutions of a
similar size? Are the Government not simply dragging their
feet on voter registration for young people?
-
My Lords, there were three questions there. On the first, I
am all in favour of what is called the nudge, so that when
people get notified of their national insurance number they
are also encouraged to vote. As for Sheffield, two weeks
ago, on the Higher Education and Research Bill, we had a
very good debate on the Sheffield initiative, which was
part funded by the Government. We are in the process of
analysing that initiative to learn the lessons from it, and
when we have done that we will be in touch with other
further and higher education institutions to see whether
that is the right model for them, or whether there are
other models that might work even better. We are determined
to do all we can to ensure that no individual is left
behind and no community is unregistered to vote.
-
(Con)
My Lords, I ask my noble friend a question that I have
asked his predecessors many times. What is the logical case
against compulsory registration, particularly bearing in
mind that it is technically an offence if you do not
register?
-
I understand that, technically, it is not an offence if you
do not register. It is an offence if you do not reply to
some correspondence from the electoral registration
officer. I am sorry to disappoint my noble friend, but I
will give him exactly the same answer that he received from
my noble friend at the Dispatch Box a few weeks ago. We
have no plans to introduce compulsory registration.
-
(Lab)
My Lords, could we do away with all this nonsense by
introducing ID cards? Would that not resolve this problem
and many others?
-
Again, I reply in a similar vein. The Government have no
plans to introduce ID cards.
-
(Con)
Will my noble friend look at the Northern Ireland schools
initiative mentioned by the noble Lord, , which has been
commended in this House across parties on a number of
occasions?
-
Yes, I am aware of the initiative in Northern Ireland. The
advice that I have received is that the EROs are already
free to work with local schools and colleges in their
areas. Many already do so. Northern Ireland registration is
different from the rest of the UK, so the schools
initiative may not necessarily translate across to the rest
of the UK.
-
of Bengarve
(CB)
Does the Minister agree that Northern Ireland gives us
another reason to think about compulsory registration? The
Government have maintained that the common travel area will
continue after Brexit. I do not see how that can be done
except by people having ID cards or passports that are
biometrically sophisticated and carried by all of us. It is
no good just saying, “Let the illegals identify themselves”.
-
That goes way beyond my negotiating brief and takes us into
very difficult territory about the future of the common
travel area in Northern Ireland. I repeat that we have had a
debate about ID cards and the Government have made their
position clear. We are not minded to introduce them in the
UK.
-
(Lab)
My Lords, have the Government done any calculations about the
demographics of the electorate in coming years? Can the
Government give any idea of the number of people aged 18 who
will be joining the electoral register and the rate of
attrition among older people who will be leaving the
electoral register?
-
The short answer is no. But the noble Baroness will be
pleased to hear that, since IER was introduced, 5.7 million
people between the ages of 16 and 24 have joined the
register, so we have had some success in getting that end of
the register backfilled. So far as the other half of her
question is concerned, I will have to write to her.
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