Clause 7 - Encouraging Voting
Regional Assemblies (Preparations) Bill
11:15 am
Mr Philip Hammond (Runnymede and Weybridge, Conservative)
First, I would like to give the Under-Secretary the opportunity—I am sure that he will take it, whether I give it to him or not—to answer the questions that the RNIB posed in its briefing. The RNIB asks for clear assurances about large-print information, pictures, illustrations of texts and video and audio tapes, which would help to make the process more accessible. The briefing continues:
''What provision does the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister intend to make in the orders regulating the conduct of referendums to enable visually impaired people to vote independently and in secret and who will they be consulting over this?''
I have no idea what answers the RNIB would like to hear, but no doubt the Under-Secretary will be able to make something up.
I return to the broader issue of the scope of the clause. I know that Ministers come into Committee Rooms programmed to defend the impeccable drafting of Bills, without ever conceding the possibility that there might be a need to consider any tightening or changes. Usually such a defence precedes the tabling of 300 Government amendments when the Bill is on Report. I would be more comfortable if the Under-Secretary would accept that the clause is open to interpretations that are much wider than the Government intended. The clause states:
''The Electoral Commission may do anything they think necessary''.
Empowering a body to do anything it thinks necessary to achieve a certain end is very unusual. The clause is open to the interpretation that the Liberal Democrat spokesman placed on it: it might encompass making arrangements for the ballot itself. It might also encompass offering incentives to vote or imposing penalties for not voting. If the Government do not intend such things to be included within the scope of the clause, what possible harm can there be in stating that explicitly?
I am being terribly reasonable. I am not saying that I will vote against the clause; I am asking the Under-Secretary to give the Committee some comfort by at least acknowledging that there is an issue to be addressed. Will he reassure us by saying that the Government will consider the issue? If, after further consultation, with a cold towel round the head, the Government agree that a little more definition would improve the clause, will they draw up an appropriate amendment? The Government cannot bear to accept Opposition amendments, so I am trying to be constructive by offering them the opportunity of proposing an amendment later. Otherwise, the Conservatives would certainly want to introduce an amendment of their own.