New Clause 11 - Power to make regulations about registration, absent voting and other matters

Part of Elections Bill – in the House of Commons at 7:15 pm on 17 January 2022.

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Photo of Brendan O'Hara Brendan O'Hara Shadow SNP Spokesperson (International Human Rights and Conflict Resolution), Shadow SNP Deputy Spokesperson (Cabinet Office) 7:15, 17 January 2022

The hon. Lady is absolutely spot-on. As she says, we heard from many witnesses who said that the wider the franchise and the more the people who vote, the less there can be untoward interference.

Why are the UK Government so opposed to giving 16 and 17-year-olds the vote? Unfortunately, the Minister for Levelling Up Communities is no longer in her place. In Committee, I hoped to find out why she thought it was okay for Scotland and Wales, but not for England and Northern Ireland. Her reply to me was:

“There is no need for me to rehash the arguments. I ask him to ask his parliamentary researcher to research Hansard.”––[Official Report, Elections Public Bill Committee, 26 October 2021; c. 371.]

That was a Minister’s response on this very issue in Committee, and I am sorry she is no longer in her place to correct it.

It does not have to be this way. One way the Government could gauge public opinion without the rancour and animosity that we sometimes see here would be to embrace the idea of citizens’ assemblies, as we propose in new clause 3. I think it is fair to say, and I defy anyone to say otherwise, that we do not have a monopoly on wisdom in this place. There are people outside this Chamber who have good ideas and whose approach to complex decision making we could find useful and helpful.

Bringing together a group of citizens who are representative of the country and allowing them to explore ideas on electoral reform would add value to our deliberations in this place. Again, it would not be a step into the unknown because citizens’ assemblies have been shown to work in Scotland. Many democracies around the world use them, most notably Ireland where, during the complicated and sensitive nationwide discussion on reforming the abortion law, they were shown to be enormously successful. Of course citizens’ assemblies cannot change the law, as that is left to this place and other Parliaments, but they can put interesting challenges and ideas before us and give us a genuine sense of what people want and what are their priorities.

We have heard so often that maximising participation is vital for a healthy democracy, and new clause 4 would ensure that all eligible voters automatically appear on the electoral register. Automatic voter registration is not complicated or costly, and it is not particularly administratively challenging. For example, young people could automatically go on to the electoral register when they receive their national insurance number. That is commonplace around the world, and there are a variety of models for the Government to look to for guidance. It would get more people on to the register and it would lead to a higher turnout, greater participation and hopefully, as we have heard, a sense of civic responsibility, particularly among young people and groups that have felt marginalised or on the periphery of society.

Of course there are few groups more marginalised and on the periphery than those in prison. New clause 5 would bring UK election law into line with that of Scotland, where a person sentenced to a term of 12 months or less does not lose their right to participate in elections. In May’s Holyrood election, for the first time prisoners serving such sentences were eligible to vote. The Electoral Commission has shown that a very small number exercised that right but, nevertheless, we believe that cutting people off from society while serving prison sentences of less than 12 months is utterly counterproductive and totally unhelpful to their rehabilitation. New clause 5 would also bring the UK into line with the European Court of Human Rights, which has declared that a blanket ban on prisoners’ voting is a breach of protocol 1, article 3 of the European convention on human rights.

New clauses 6 and 7 would extend the franchise to all non-UK nationals with leave to remain and all EU nationals domiciled in the UK, which is particularly important. In May 2021, when the SNP won an unprecedented fourth term, it was on the largest and widest franchise ever in a Scottish parliamentary election. That was no accident because, having already added 16 and 17-year-olds and EU nationals, in 2020 the Scottish Parliament further extended the franchise to include all foreign nationals with leave to remain, including refugees. It was done because Scotland wants to be an open, welcoming country that recognises the enormous contribution that EU nationals and others have made to our country by choosing to call it home. We wanted to say it loudly and clearly that they are valued, that they are welcome and that we view them as an important part of our future.