ELECTORAL REGISTRATION AND COALITION GOVERNMENT

Early day motion 722, tabled 21 January 2015 by Chris Ruane (Labour). Signed by 73 members.

That this House recognises the cross-party unity in implementing the Electoral Administration Act 2009 to introduce individual electoral registration (IER); notes that the timescale for its introduction was after May 2015; further notes that the reason for this long lead in time was to register the 7.5 million missing voters; further notes that this cross-party unity was shattered in 2010 when the Coalition Government brought forward the date for the introduction of IER; further notes that the stated reason for bringing forward the date for introduction of IER was public concern over electoral registration fraud; further notes that only one person had been successfully prosecuted for electoral registration fraud in the previous four years; further notes that the Government has failed to reduce the number of non-registered voters over the past five years; further notes that this figure has now been increased by an additional one million young people left off the new register; further notes that a possible additional 5.5 million voters could fail to be transferred to the new IER register; and further notes that the combined impact of these failures will have a detrimental effect on the General Election and a detrimental impact on the number of people excluded from the calculations in the new Parliamentary Boundary Review which starts in December 2015.

Signatures by party: Labour 70, DUP 1, Independent 1, Plaid Cymru 1.