Clause 67 - Financial Provision
Electoral Administration Bill
11:45 am
Chris Ruane (PPS (Rt Hon Peter Hain, Secretary of State), Office of the Secretary of State for Wales; Vale of Clwyd, Labour)
I will not take up too much of the Committee’s time, but I want to reinforce a few points. I will not go over the statistics that I have gleaned from the National Assembly for Wales on the amounts spent on registration and on electoral administration. However, finance is key. The figures from Wales show that the local authorities that spent the most on registration had the best results. That should inform our debate.
We should look at best practice around the country, and band the areas. For example, we should look at how much is spent by local authorities in inner-city areas, and say, “This registration department got good results spending a certain amount of money and we recommend that as a benchmark for other inner-city local authorities to aim for.” We should recognise that there are differences in registration rates in different local authority areas.
We know the profile of those who are under-registered. They are young, low-paid and unemployed, and are associated with large black and ethnic populations. Central Government should recognise that if local authorities have large numbers of unemployed people and young people, and large black and ethnic populations, their electoral registration departments will have difficulty registering those people. Additional resources should be allocated from the centre in recognition of those difficulties. That money, if it is allocated, should be ring-fenced for registration, not for any other electoral purpose. If such areas are having difficulty with registration and money is given from central Government for that purpose, that is what it should be spent on.