New Clause 1 Content of election address
Electoral Administration Bill
12:00 pm
David Heath (Shadow Secretary of State for Constitutional Affairs & Shadow Leader of the House, Law Officers (Constitutional Affairs); Somerton and Frome, Liberal Democrat)
I entirely accept what the hon. Gentleman says. I do not want to get into bashing Royal Mail because that is not the intention behind the new clause. Undoubtedly, there are problems with Royal Mail delivery of freepost in some areas. I have no idea about black holes in Norfolk, but it is no great surprise to learn that they might exist. I do know, however, that that happened elsewhere in the country. Incidentally, there are often significant problems with delivery in areas where parliamentary constituencies are so inconvenient as to cross postcode areas. Constituents of mine who live in part of the constituency with a Dorset postcode very often receive communications from the right hon. Member for West Dorset (Mr. Letwin), although they live in Milborne Port, Somerset rather than Sherborne, Dorset. That is a great aggravation for my constituents who, I am sure, like to know about the right hon. Member for West Dorset, but do not feel that he is entirely relevant to their constituency.
My general point is that the universal service provider—whatever that company will be; at present, it is Royal Mail—must realise that it does not have any editorial control over election material. That is not a matter for Royal Mail. If it has a serious doubt about whether material is within the constraints of the law, which is a question that will arise sometimes, it should not make that judgement, but pass it to the Electoral Commission to adjudicate. Although the Electoral Commission is not looking for additional work in this area, it is the only sensible outcome, rather than allowing a postmaster to take a view without the commission’s support.
If there were such a scheme in place, it would have the desired effect. I do not envisage a lot of material being sent to the Electoral Commission for adjudication, nor that it will be a time-consuming or onerous task. Once the message has got through to postmasters that it is not their job, they will not seek to intervene in inappropriate areas, and the Electoral Commission will not have a huge new task foisted on it. I hope that the Minister will listen carefully to those points.