Clause 19 - Review of polling places
Electoral Administration Bill
4:00 pm
David Cairns (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Scotland Office; Inverclyde, Labour)
In his preamble, the hon. Member for Somerton and Frome (Mr. Heath) to some extent answered my objection to amendment No. 3, which is that part 4 relates to parliamentary elections whose dates are not known. The amendment seeks to prevent the electoral registration officer from changing polling districts in the three months before an election, the date of which is known in advance. Clause 19, however, relates to parliamentary elections, the dates of which are generally not known three months in advance, so the amendment would not work.
I am sure, however, that we all have a great deal of sympathy with what the hon. Gentleman said. It would be very confusing to candidates, to party workers and others, but most of all to the electorate, if polling districts were changed willy nilly very close to an election.
The alteration to the polling district will take effect only once the electoral registration officer has published a notice stating that he or she has made all the necessary adaptations. In practice, a registration officer would be bound to use his or her discretion in publishing such a notice when he or she knew that an election was pending. I have an enormous amount of sympathy with what the hon. Gentleman says. He is very obviously sounding a common-sense note when he talks about making such changes too late. Unfortunately, as I said, the amendment would not have the intended effect in part 4. With my assurance, I hope that he will withdraw the amendment.