Clause 3 - Pilot schemes under the 2000 Act
European Parliamentary and Local Elections (Pilots) Bill
11:15 am
Mr Nick Hawkins (Surrey Heath, Conservative)
It is not for me to express a view one way or the other. We have said that there are some arguments for having postal pilots but we do not believe that they have to be run in three areas. As the hon. Gentleman knows, we are very much against the e-voting pilots for the reasons that we gave this morning.
I am glad that the hon. Gentleman agrees that, as a result of the clause, there is a danger that any area used as a postal pilot area before will not necessarily be included next time. I will be interested to hear the Minister say how the Government will respond if areas such as the hon. Gentleman's in Chorley are left out next time because they were used to run pilot schemes before.