Clause 1 - Registration: provision of signature and date of birth
Electoral Fraud (Northern Ireland)
11:00 am
Thank you, Mr. Hood. In that context, I simply refer the Committee to the fact that amendments Nos. 2, 13 to 17, 20 to 22 and 10 all concern the logical implementation of having national insurance numbers in all aspects of voting such as registration, absent voting and polling day questions to be put to the elector. I hope that hon. Members will not feel short-changed if I do not go into each of them in detail, but they relate simply to the necessity of carrying through the proposals on national insurance numbers.
I support the lead amendment and the consequential amendments and encourage the Committee and the Government to consider this serious submission, which clearly has cross-party support in Northern Ireland. That in itself is unique. The Government should listen to this because it is better and simpler than some of the proposals in the Bill.