Clause 19 - Review of polling places
Electoral Administration Bill
4:15 pm
David Cairns (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Scotland Office; Inverclyde, Labour)
Thank you, Mr. O'Hara. On the point raised by the hon. Member for Southport (Dr. Pugh), one will not, under the Bill, need 30 electors to bring a formal complaint. Anyone can bring a complaint and raise the relevant issues. If there is inequity of access, as the hon. Gentleman says, the solution must be decided locally, by those with local knowledge. The clause allows for a much more open discussion and dialogue between individuals with a point to make and the returning officers who make the decisions.
We want to make the process more transparent, so that it is easier for people to intervene on the issue that I shall now discuss—access to polling stations—and on the broader access issue of where people live. Clearly, if many people once lived in a certain part of town in high-rise flats, but those were later knocked down and no one lives there now, it is daft to persevere with having a polling station there. A systematic review of such matters, to which anyone could contribute, would be an improvement.