Clause 1 - Piloting conduct at European
European Parliamentary and Local Elections (Pilots) Bill
11:15 am
Mr David Heath (Somerton and Frome, Liberal Democrat)
I am not against the principle of pilot schemes, because there are strong arguments for running them. Nor am I averse, as I have made plain, to novel methods of voting. I have had some experience of that in my constituency, and my view is that it improved turnout and people were satisfied with the outcome.
In general, until now the pilot schemes have operated in whole local authority areas, although I am told that there were some exceptions to that, of which I was not aware, in which trials took place in specific wards within local authority areas. However, in general, a single local authority has considered whether it wished to run a pilot and made proposals to the Government and, if those proposals were agreed, the pilot was run in that whole local authority area or the wards in it. That is the right way to do it. My quarrel is with the proposal that a large tranche of the
country, but not all of it, should adopt this system at an election for a single body—the European Parliament.
I could perhaps accept the proposal more easily if the system were to be adopted in only one region and we were to use that as an experiment. However, I understand that the Government are proposing—although that is not explicit in the Bill—that three regions will participate, out of the 10 European electoral areas for the UK, excluding Northern Ireland, for reasons that we understand. A significant part of the UK will therefore be involved, meaning that the principle of trying a small-scale experiment first and then expanding it if it works, will not apply. It will be a huge experiment in a large part of the country—the population that will be affected by it is three times that of Scotland. Once an experiment is being conducted on that scale, it would be better to
run the whole election under a new system and to assess the result. At least there would then be consistency throughout the country and the result could be compared with previous elections to see whether there appeared to be a significant change. We would then have the perfect opportunity to see whether there is a differential between different parts of the country—different because of their rural or urban natures or because of the number of local authorities involved. That would be a more significant experiment—in the words of the hon. Member for Stroud—than the one in the Government's proposals.
Mr. Harris rose—
It being twenty-five minutes past Eleven o'clock, The Chairman adjourned the Committee without question put, pursuant to the Standing Order.
Adjourned till this day at fifteen minutes past Two o'clock.