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Devolution (Further Powers) Committee 11 June 2015

11 Jun 2015 · S4 · Devolution (Further Powers) Committee

Item of business

Scottish Elections (Reduction of Voting Age) Bill: Stage 2

FitzPatrick, Joe SNP Dundee City West Watch on SPTV

Good morning. The amendments in this group arise from our on-going discussions with stakeholders. As the committee is aware, the Government has worked closely with electoral administrators, the Electoral Commission and others to ensure that the bill’s provisions are workable. The amendments in this group are technical amendments whose aim is to improve the provisions on the protection of information relating to those aged under 16. Amendments 1 and 8 address an issue that was raised in evidence given by the Scottish Assessors Association and the Information Commissioner’s Office on the pre-printing of voter information on the annual household inquiry form. Pre-printing of information on the canvass form is standard practice and has been shown to improve registration rates. Amendment 8 makes it clear that one of the very limited ways in which a young person’s information may be used is on a pre-populated canvass form. However, that will be subject to the restriction that is set out in amendment 1. Amendment 1 provides that, where an electoral registration officer is pre-populating a canvass form with the details of anyone believed to be living in a particular household, the date of birth of anyone under the age of 16 must not be included. The amendment responds to the concerns raised by the Information Commissioner’s Office and the Scottish Assessors Association about pre-population, and strengthens the protections on young voter’s information. Amendments 5, 7, 9 and 10 all relate to absent voter records and lists that are kept by electoral registration officers in relation to local government elections. Those are the postal voters list, the list of proxies, and the proxy postal voters list. Under normal procedures, EROs periodically circulate those lists to various persons, usually ahead of an election. The amendments put it beyond doubt that the information contained on the lists is included in the definition of “young person’s information” that is set out in section 12, so that the information on the records and lists will be subject to the stringent protections that are set out in sections 12 and 13. The amendments have been developed following detailed discussion with electoral registration officers. Amendments 6 and 11 are drafting amendments to provide consistency in the references to a young person in section 13. Amendment 12 addresses an issue that was raised by the Electoral Commission during stage 1 around checking the permissibility of donations or loans. Political parties and candidates are required to check that donations over a certain value come from a permissible donor, as defined in section 54 of the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000. Similarly, that act provides that any loans made to political parties must be by an authorised participant, who is defined as being a permissible donor within the meaning of section 54. Section 54 of the 2000 act provides that, among other things, to be a permissible donor the individual must be on an electoral register in the United Kingdom, which includes being on a register as an attainer. Because of the bill’s controls on the availability of information on those aged under 16, the Electoral Commission commented that a mechanism would need to be put in place to allow their permissibility as donors or lenders to be checked, and the point was subsequently picked up in the committee’s stage 1 report. Section 13(5) of the bill already permits EROs to disclose a young person’s information to that young person. Amendment 12 will require an ERO to do that if the individual requested the information for the purpose of verifying that they are a permissible donor under section 54(2)(a) of the 2000 act. As a result of the bill, 16 and 17-year-olds will be able to appoint and act as proxy voters. As part of normal electoral practice, EROs need to be able to write to anyone appointed as a proxy to confirm that appointment. The proxy will also need to be supplied with the elector’s name, address and electoral number as part of their proxy poll card. Amendment 13 adds a new subsection to section 13 to create a further exemption to the general prohibition on disclosing a young person’s information, by allowing that information to be disclosed to a person appointed by them to vote as their proxy. The amendments in this group are the result of our continued constructive engagement with stakeholders. Their aim is to ensure that the package of measures contained in the bill strikes an appropriate balance between the protection of sensitive information on young voters and the need for transparency, integrity and efficacy in the registration system. I believe that, with these amendments, the bill achieves that balance as far as possible, and I recommend them to the committee. I move amendment 1.