Clause 29 - Voting rights
Mental Capacity Bill
3:45 pm
Mr Tim Boswell (Shadow Minister, Home Affairs; Daventry, Conservative)
I beg to move amendment No. 40, in
clause 29, page 16, line 20, leave out 'for any public office'.
This may be a less taxing issue for the Committee than the new clauses that we discussed earlier. This is simply a probing amendment. I notice that the clause seeks to avoid any suggestion that someone could vote on behalf of a person who lacked capacity, or use such a person's rights on their own behalf.
I have two anomalies in mind. First, I think that I am right in saying that persons with a mental illness but not lacking mental capacity are able to vote. We need not debate that here, but it would be useful if the Minister confirmed that. Secondly, in relation to private matters, a decision to be taken—on participating in an election as a shareholder on behalf of the person lacking capacity, for example—may, at one level, be even more momentous than the decision to participate in a general election or referendum.
Somewhat as an afterthought, I would like the Minister's assurance that the clause is so drafted as to cover the class of ''any public election'' or involvement. We are given a definition of ''referendum'' in the clause, and we know on the whole what elections for ''any public office'' entail, because all of us are involved in them. However, consultations locally, expressions of opinion, town polls and so on might not be covered, and it is important that the Minister briefly turns aside from our major considerations today to consider these nuts and bolts issues.