European Parliamentary Elections (Amendment) (No. 2) Regulations 2009 Considered in Grand Committee 18:15:00 Moved By Lord Bach That the Grand Committee do report to the House that it has considered the European Parliamentary Elections (Amendment) (No. 2) Regulations 2009. Relevant Document: 8th Report from the Joint Committee on Statutory Instruments The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Ministry of Justice (Lord Bach) I am grateful to the Committee for agreeing to consider the draft regulations today. Subject to your approval, this will enable the statutory instrument to be in place in good time ahead of the European parliamentary elections on 4 June. The background is that the European Parliamentary Elections Regulations 2004 apply the legal framework that is in place for UK parliamentary elections to the conduct of European parliamentary elections, with necessary modifications. The European Parliamentary Elections (Amendment) Regulations 2009 amended the 2004 regulations to take into account changes that have been made to electoral law since the last European parliamentary election in 2004. After being approved by this House and the other place, the 2009 regulations were made on 29 January 2009 and came into force the following day. The draft regulations before us today are necessary to correct a small number of unintentional errors introduced into the 2004 regulations by amendments made in the 2009 regulations. The 2009 regulations substituted new Schedule 1 to the 2004 regulations, which contain the European parliamentary elections rules. Rule 53(3), as substituted by the 2009 regulations, currently provides that, while counting the votes, a local returning officer must keep the ballot papers with their faces upwards and, “take all proper precautions for preventing any person from seeing them”. The amendment in Regulation 2(2) of the draft regulations corrects this rule, in accordance with the original policy intention, to provide that a local returning officer must take all proper precautions for preventing any person from seeing only, “the numbers or other unique identifying marks printed on the back of the papers”. Regulation 2(3) of the draft regulations corrects a small number of very minor errors in the absent voting provisions in Schedule 2 to the 2004 regulations, which was substituted by the 2009 regulations. My department has clear procedures in place for checking draft statutory instruments before they are laid. They were adhered to in respect of these regulations, but unfortunately the errors were not picked up. Although in some respects explicable by the length and complexity of the 2009 regulations, it is of course fully recognised that these errors should not have occurred, and I apologise to the Committee. The draft regulations were prepared as soon as the errors were identified, and it is not expected that their timing will create difficulties for electoral administration in the build-up to the European parliamentary elections on 4 June. The Deputy Chairman of Committees (Viscount Simon) A Division has been called in the House. The Committee will resume at 6.28 pm. 18:18:00 Sitting suspended for a Division in the House. 18:28:00 Lord Bach Before we were interrupted, I was very close to finishing my opening remarks. As I was telling the Committee, the draft regulations were prepared as soon as the errors were identified and it is not expected that the timing will create difficulties for electoral administrators. As required by statute, the Electoral Commission has been consulted and has confirmed that it is content with the draft regulations. While the corrections made by the draft regulations are relatively minor, they are nevertheless important to ensure the smooth running of the European parliamentary elections in England, Wales, Scotland and Gibraltar on 4 June. That is our objective. I commend the regulations. I beg to move. Lord Henley I congratulate the noble Lord on managing to speak for four minutes on these four pages when his noble friend the Leader of the House managed to deal with 90 pages of Northern Ireland electoral amendment regulations in six minutes. Perhaps the Ministry of Justice could take a little advice from the Northern Ireland Office and keep things shorter in future. We are very grateful for the noble Lord’s apologies on behalf of himself and the department for failing to spot the errors. In the true spirit of the times, I apologise on behalf of the Opposition for our not spotting them when the regulations went through. However, the rectification seems perfectly straightforward and is set out in the Explanatory Note, and for that we are grateful. I am also grateful for the noble Lord’s saying that the department’s procedures did not work as they should have done. Should a further measure be required in future, we hope that the department will ensure that the procedures work as they should, and that such mistakes can be spotted earlier. I offer the Opposition’s full support for the regulations. Baroness Garden of Frognal Although it was obviously unfortunate that the errors crept in, we, too, entirely accept the Minister’s explanation and raise no objection to the regulations. Lord Bach I thank the noble Lord and the noble Baroness for what they had to say. Motion agreed. Committee adjourned at 6.30 pm.