In Parliament earlier today Siobhain proposed a new law to make it compulsory to be on the Electoral Register in order to access public services like housing benefit and driving licences.
The ELECTORAL REGISTER (ACCESS TO PUBLIC SERVICES) Bill would deal with concerns that new Government plans will reduce electoral registration and make it harder to tackle crime.
These plans will drastically reduce the number of people on the electoral roll by preventing parents from being able to register their children, and making it harder for Councils to sign up eligible voters. Experts believe that around a third of the population will lose their right to vote, notably disadvantaged groups like low income households, private sector tenants, young people and people from ethnic minorities.
As the Electoral Register is the most comprehensive database available, and is used by the police and anti-fraud investigators, Siobhain wants to increase the number of people registered to vote in order to make it easier to solve crime and prevent fraud. She also believes social disengagement among disadvantaged communities will reduce.
Siobhain says:
“My Bill has two purposes: to prevent the creation of a new underclass of the disenfranchised, and to fight crime. By making it mandatory to be on the Electoral Register to access public services like tax credits, housing benefits or even a driving licence, we will ensure nobody is excluded from our democracy.
“If you don’t want to live in a democracy and play by our rules, fine. But they shouldn't expect to get the rewards of living in a democracy in return.”
Ends
Speech is as follows:
Mr Speaker, I beg to move
That leave be given to bring in a Bill to introduce a requirement that electoral registration be a condition of access to public services; and for connected purposes.
Mister Speaker,
Registering to vote is just about the nearest thing this country has to a social contract.
It is recognition that we live in a democracy and we abide by the outcome of that democracy.
However, around 3.5 million people are not registered to vote.
According to the Electoral Commission these people are likely to be: young people, people on low incomes, private sector tenants, ethnic minorities, or people with disabilities.
Their disengagement from democracy is a cause of great concern to me and to many members.
This Bill will ensure they engage.
In future, if someone wants housing benefits, a state pension, a National Insurance number or even a driving licence, they will have to be on the Electoral Register.
I do not think that is too much to ask.
After all, if you need to be on the electoral register to get a credit card, why not to get a driving licence?
Linking public services to the register will increase participation and draw an explicit connection between democracy and the benefits we enjoy because we live in a democracy.
If you don’t like living in a democracy, fine, but don’t expect all the good things that democracy offers in return.
The Electoral Register is important.
It deserves to be comprehensive.
It is the source of deciding who does jury service, so everyone should be on it.
As far as I am concerned, refusal to be on the register shows contempt for juries and contempt for courts.
What’s more, it is an important tool in the fight against crime.
The police routinely use it if they want to get in touch with a suspect, or someone who is at risk.
It’s what banks and credit companies use to prevent fraud.
Councils use it to check people don’t commit Council Tax or benefit fraud.
A failure to sign the register is therefore a failure to co-operate with the agencies that fight crime.
So I do not have a problem with reasonable sanctions being taken against those who do not sign.
Of course, the Electoral Register should be supported for nobler reasons.
Charities use it to help raise funds for countless good causes.
But when it comes down to it, its central purpose - to give people a chance to vote - is more important than anything else.
For that reason alone, I think we can all agree that the Electoral Register should be as comprehensive as possible.
When I went to the USA last year to volunteer on the Obama for America campaign, some politicians engaged in what was called voter suppression, a deliberate attempt to ensure that poor people, ethnic minorities, the young could not vote.
None of us, surely, want to live in that kind of country, where elections are won or lost because of who is denied a vote.
My Bill is an antidote to voter suppression.
And it is needed because the 3.5 million is about to grow.
I am assured this Government is not committing voter suppression, but according to the Electoral Commission, registration rates may soon fall from over 90% to just 65%.
Mums and dads are about to be prevented from registering their children to vote.
“Individual Registration” sounds appealing, but when it was introduced in Northern Ireland, the register collapsed – by 11%.
The Electoral Commission says this “adversely affected” disadvantaged groups – the people most likely to be disengaged.
Thankfully, the Government’s plan to make registering to vote optional was shelved, and the annual canvass was reinstated.
However, there are serious flaws in the new system of registration, especially how difficult it is going to be for local authorities to sign people up.
The challenge of getting people to register was belatedly recognised last month by the Minister for Political and Constitutional Reform,
when she offered £4.2m for anyone who could come up with unspecified measures to reduce the number of people who fall through the gaps.
However, as the Electoral Reform Society says: “when you’re talking about trying to prevent literally millions of people from falling off the register, £4.2m is not a great deal of money. You need a lot more than that to close the gap.”
My Council, Merton, is clearly very good.
Before its annual canvass, only 65% of households have completed their form; afterwards, 97% have.
But that is households.
Like many of us, I knock on a lot of doors to talk to constituents, and there are homes I go to where I see the same faces every year, but where I miss the same individuals every time.
Because Electoral Registration Officers will no longer be able to accept the word of the person they do see that the person they don’t still lives there, those people will fall off the register.
And because ERO’s will no longer be able to accept forms completed on the door, but will have to rely on people to fill them in later, even good, pro-active Councils like Merton will just have to fall back on blind faith.
In reality, we all know many of those forms will never get filled in or returned.
The Electoral Commission reckons a third of eligible voters will simply not register.
It will be worse in areas of deprivation.
What we will see, if we are not careful, is the people on the edges of society will slowly disengage –
We will institutionalise the underclass.
The electoral register will no longer be comprehensive.
The Government says the new system will tackle fraud, and I am as concerned about electoral malpractice as anyone.
However, we have to remember that, even according to the Government’s own papers, fraudulent registration is “rare”.
The Electoral Commission’s Report into the 2013 elections lists a number of alleged malpractices:
“potential campaign or nomination offences, including alleged false nominations, false statements about the character or conduct of candidates, and allegations that some election materials failed to include the correct imprint”.
Fraudulent registration was not mentioned at all.
Indeed, surveys show 20 times more people are satisfied with how we register to vote than dissatisfied.
What’s more, there is very little incentive to fraudulently register because Councils look at the Electoral Register, and it might mean a higher Council Tax bill.
Instead of reducing the Electoral Register by tackling a fraud that that doesn’t take place, we should be enhancing it in order to fight bigger crimes.
Because the problem with our electoral register is not that too many people are on it; it’s that 3.5 million aren’t.
There’s a lot we can do about that.
The Electoral Reform Society wants steps taken to make it easier to register, like being able to register on election day.
They also want people to be able to register “whenever people interact with government – for instance when they collect their pensions or benefits”.
I go even further.
Registering should be Stage One of the process of interacting with Government.
At a stroke, we would reinstate millions of people who are missing from the register.
The vast majority of these missing millions are eligible for benefits, tax credits, pensions, and so on.
Many are already receiving them.
Bringing those people onto the register will ensure even more people engage in the democratic process.
This Bill is about living in a something for something society.
Public services in return for a civic duty.
The rewards of living in a democracy in return for signing up to democracy.
Registering to vote is about engagement, a recognition that a person is not on the margins, but a full participant in society.
It is our social contract.
Strengthening the register will tackle fraud and reduce social exclusion, but more than that it will ensure more people have a chance to vote.
And those of us who believe in democracy should all agree that is no bad thing.
I commend this Bill to the House.