European Parliamentary and Local Elections (Pilots) Bill

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 3:44 pm on 21 October 2003.

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Photo of Russell Brown Russell Brown Labour, Dumfries 3:44, 21 October 2003

I welcome the Bill. I begin by echoing the opening comments of my hon. Friend Mr. Harris about the number of people on electoral registers because that point was raised in an Adjournment debate in Westminster Hall on 4 June. The debate was secured by my hon. Friend Mr. Tynan and he talked about our experiences in Scotland during the local elections and the Scottish Parliament elections. There was a significant decline in the number of people registered. The number of people registered in Glasgow, Maryhill between 2001 and 2003 dropped by 13 per cent.. That is a significant amount. If the 2001 figure had stood, the number of people turning up to vote would have been significantly worse.

My hon. Friend Chris Ruane has an Adjournment debate in Westminster Hall tomorrow on electoral registers. We need to do something. We have passed legislation and numbers have fallen. We need to back that up by carrying out checks at vacant addresses, as some local authorities already do.