Hansard

Yes. There is a lot to respond to. What we have heard is an illustration of why amendment 18 is useful in so far as it provokes discussion. As you might imagine, we are opposed to the amendment. I will go through our reasons for that and I will then respond to the points that members have made. I understand why reducing the amount of time in which people can apply for a postal vote has attracted attention. It is counterintuitive when we are talking about aiming to significantly increase postal voting from 18 per cent of the electorate to 40 or even 50 per cent. I say to Mr Findlay that that figure is worth reflecting on—I would contend that we are hardly being conservative in our ambitions with that planned increase. However, by moving the deadline from 20 April to 6 April, section 3 of the bill makes a change that was directly requested by electoral professionals. Indeed, it is probably one of the key changes in the bill from their perspective, given that electoral registration officers will have to process around 900,000 new applications to achieve that increase to 40 per cent. Processing postal vote applications poses a challenge for EROs ahead of any polling day, with many people choosing to apply on or close to the application deadline. Amendment 18 risks it not being possible to process the expected increase in applications. Electoral professionals have been clear that that would risk some people effectively losing their vote. While in-person voting would remain an option for those individuals, if voters have chosen to apply to vote by post, it is safe to assume that they either cannot or do not want to vote in person. From my perspective, it would be unacceptable if those who have applied for a postal vote by the application deadline were denied their vote because it could not be processed in time. It would impinge on the legitimacy of the election. Rather than increasing participation, amendment 18 could end up depriving people of their vote if they cannot vote in person or by proxy, which I know is not what Mr Sarwar wants. Electoral professionals have also made it clear that that is not a problem that can be resolved by resources alone, and the committee took evidence to that effect. We have already agreed an initial allocation of £3 million to assist EROs with that and further funding will be made available as actual costs are incurred. I will expand on that in a second, if I may. It is a question of training, managing systems and having the necessary expertise in place. That takes time; we need to give the experts in our electoral community the time that they need to do their jobs. That means building in resilience to ensure that all the postal vote applications can be processed and postal votes issued in time. Supporting amendment 18 would ignore the expert advice that we have received and open us up to a risky course of action that could prevent some voters from voting, which is unthinkable. 09:45 I will respond to some of the points that have been made. Mr Sarwar is correct that the mitigation that he seeks is to be found in early information campaigns. From my perspective, those need to be delivered locally, so that the interaction is between local EROs and electors. As members appreciate, this is an expedited bill and we are moving through it quickly. We are looking to have a meeting at the beginning of next week with the Electoral Commission and the Electoral Management Board for Scotland to tease out exactly what is happening on the ground with regard to those campaigns, although, obviously, we have a broad idea. At the moment, in some constituencies, there is already a higher than average uptake of postal votes. In some constituencies, within the £3 million that is available to them, the EROs have already committed to localised campaigns. We will actively encourage others among the 15 EROs to do just that, using whatever means they feel appropriate. A £2 million budget is sitting there and the Government is committed to putting more money into that if it is needed. That interaction between the EROs and the local electorate is pivotal, with campaigns tailored to local circumstances. I will be happy to report back to members at stage 3 about how we have progressed that. Maureen Watt talked about processing close to the deadline. In 2016, 3 per cent of postal votes were not counted because of issues that were identified in the ratification process. Therefore, there is an issue there, which is one of the things that has fed into the bill. We need to give maximum opportunity to the electoral authorities to maximise the chance of postal votes being deemed valid. With regard to Patrick Harvie’s point about capacity, the capacity that is provided for at the moment is not just for 40 per cent; it allows for a surge to 50 per cent. I think that the committee received evidence from Pete Wildman about that. We have a capacity to handle 40 per cent, with a bit of leeway in the final couple of weeks up to the deadline, in case of a significant surge, such as 40 per cent going up to 50 per cent. Therefore, I give the assurance that Anas Sarwar was seeking. We can counter the downside of an earlier deadline by getting that information out earlier and encouraging a smooth but significant uptake of postal votes if people feel that they need them.