Representation of the People (Electronic Communications and Amendment) (Northern Ireland) Regulations 2020

The changes in these regulations will, if the clauses in the coronavirus Bill pass, apply to the 2021 canvass. That does not mean that the Northern Ireland register will fall into disrepair. In Northern Ireland, we hold a canvass periodically—at least every 10 years—and the last canvass was in 2013. Very importantly, in between canvasses the register is maintained by a process of continuous registration and active data-matching. Despite not having a canvass, in 2019 alone, the Electoral Office of Northern Ireland made 250,000 modifications to the Northern Ireland register, as a result of their usual continuous verification of it. This process will ensure the register is fit for purpose until the 2021 canvass.

These draft regulations make provision for a slight amendment to the stages to be undertaken by the Chief Electoral Officer as part of the next canvass. Under current provision, the Chief Electoral Officer issues paper copies of the prescribed canvass form to all individuals on the register, to make people aware of the canvass process and the need to register. Under these new provisions, a new first step will apply to the canvass process. No earlier than 1 July in a canvass year, the CEO will send a leaflet to all homes explaining canvass and asking people to register online. It will explain that forms will be posted shortly for those who want to apply on paper. In this way, we hope to encourage a good deal of the public to register online.

Following that first leaflet, the usual chasing cycle of canvass will proceed in the usual way. Addressed forms will be sent to every individual who has not already responded. Chasing letters will be issued and finally canvassers will be sent door-to-door to non-responders. I should also say that current legislation allows the CEO to retain on the register for up to three years individuals who fail to respond to canvass, where she is content that data-matching shows that their details have not changed. This provision was originally for a two-year retention after the 2013 canvass, but was extended to three years to cover the Assembly election in 2016. These regulations move the retention period back to the original period of two years.

In addition, these regulations also make a number of more minor technical amendments in relation to canvass. In Northern Ireland, every individual successfully registering online is issued with a digital registration number. That number acts in place of a signature for digital registrants to ensure that postal vote applications can continue to be scrutinised appropriately. These regulations ensure that this important number is issued, or reissued as appropriate, to people registering for the purpose of canvass. The regulations also make provision in relation to the retention of data, providing that the CEO can continue to retain that information until it is no longer required for, or in connection with, the exercise of electoral functions.

Finally, the regulations make a small technical amendment in relation to recall provisions. During the recall petition held in Northern Ireland in 2018, it became clear that there was an inconsistency in provisions concerning the marked register and how it could be accessed. These draft provisions enable the chief electoral officer to allow access to the marked register, a provision that mirrors the position for parliamentary elections.

Registration and canvass are a critical part of our democratic system, and I am happy to tell the Committee that the implementation of digital registration for canvass is fully supported and welcomed by the Electoral Commission and Chief Electoral Officer for Northern Ireland. Importantly, these changes will make canvass more efficient and will allow the chief electoral officer and her staff more time to focus on encouraging under-registered groups to engage with canvass. I should also say that the regulations have been approved by the Information Commissioner’s Office.

Allowing people to register online for canvass will make it easier for people to engage with the process as well as saving time and money and, as I said earlier, reducing paper waste. I hope that your Lordships will agree that the introduction of digital electoral registration for canvass is another step towards modernising the delivery of elections in Northern Ireland. I hope the Committee will support these regulations today. I commend them to the Committee and beg to move.

Secondly, a digital registration number would be helpful in checking whether there is a problem or an offence in double voting inappropriately in the same election. Many people in this country, quite legitimately, are on the electoral register in two different places. They can vote in different council elections, but should vote once only in a parliamentary election. It is potentially too easy for someone to vote in two places in a general election. Allegations fly around about whether perhaps student or second-home owners are doing this. If there were a national digital registration number, it would be possible for bodies such as the Electoral Commission to check whether double voting were taking place. At the moment, there are just manual systems in which 400 local authorities all maintain their own marked registers. It is not practical to do that, so there would be advantages to rolling out this system.

Thirdly, I ask whether it will be made clear to people, within the digital information sent out, that there is a legal requirement to comply with the registration process. This is probably more important in Great Britain than in Northern Ireland but, since Parliament has continued to approve the principle that it should be a legal requirement to comply with the registration process, subject to fine, if we want high rates of registration, we must make this plain in all documentation, paper or electronic.

Finally, I have another technical question on the recall legislation. In many ways, the recall legislation, passed wholly in 2015, seems flawed. What happened in Northern Ireland in 2018 highlighted some of those flaws. If the chief electoral officer will have access to the marked register in future, will that be in real time during the six-week process? One of the issues of controversy is that people will not know how many signatures have been collected during those six weeks. There have been three recall petitions since that legislation was approved. In two cases, well over 10% of the electorate signed, triggering a recall. But in one case, that in Northern Ireland, the number was just under 10%. I have the strong belief that, if people had known that there were just a few hundred signatures below the 10% level, more people would have signed that recall petition. Will the chief electoral officer have the power to, at some point—perhaps weekly intervals—disclose how many people have signed the recall petition? I would be grateful for the Minister’s help with those issues.

As I have said, it is a legal requirement to register and to comply, so the question of fines does crop up and I shall come back to that.

On recall, raised by the noble Lord, Lord Rennard, the legislation is clear that it is an offence to reveal the details of signature numbers and I am not aware of any proposal to change that. The noble Lord also raised a number of further points on recall relating in particular to the 2018 issue. Again, I will write with more detail on those.