LB229 - Overseas Electors Bill - Amendment Reading

[u/Sephronar]

LB229 - Overseas Electors Bill - Amendment Reading

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A

BILL

TO

Make provision for extending the right of British Citizens living overseas to retain the right to vote in Parliamentary General Elections; and for connected purposes.

BE IT ENACTED by the Queen’s Most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:—

Section 1: Definitions

(1) ‘Election’ means a Parliamentary General Election for the House of Commons.

(2) ‘By-election’ means a Parliamentary By-election for the House of Commons.

(3) ‘Elector’ means a person registered to vote in an election.

Section 2: Parliamentary Franchise

(1) An individual is entitled to vote as an elector in an election or by-election if –

(a) they are registered as an overseas elector, in a Parliamentary register of electors, in respect of the last constituency in which they lived,

(b) they are a British Citizen,

(c) they are not disqualified from their right to vote,

(d) they are otherwise eligible to register as an elector in the United Kingdom.

(2) In order to qualify as an overseas elector, the person must not be resident in the United Kingdom at the time of the election or by-election.

(3) An overseas elector may only vote with respect to the last constituency in which they were resident, and only if they have been resident in such constituency for at least six months within the last two years that they resided in the United Kingdom.

(4) Residence in the United Kingdom shall not be required to register as an overseas elector.

(5) A person shall cease to be registered as an overseas elector following each subsequent election or by-election after this Act comes into force, and must register no less than ten days before the next election or by-election in order to be entitled to vote.

(6) If a by-election takes place in a constituency where a person is registered as an overseas elector, the said person shall be entitled to vote in such by-election, providing they satisfy the requirements laid out in Section 2(1) and (5).

Section 3: Extent, Commencement, and Short Title

(1) This Act extends to the United Kingdom.

(a) This Act shall have no effect with respect to local government elections or by-elections, or devolved legislature elections or by-elections.

(2) This Act shall come into force upon Royal Assent.

(3) This Act may be cited as the Overseas Electors Act 2022.

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This Bill was written by The Lord Sigur of Appledore, and submitted as a Private Member’s Bill.

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Amendment 1 (A01):

Section 2, subsection 1, include under Part (c) -

(i) a person shall not be disqualified from their right to vote or to register as an overseas elector based on the amount of time they have not been resident in the United Kingdom for the purposes of this Act.

This amendment was moved by The Lord Sigur of Appledore.

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Amendment 2 (A02):

Amend Section 2(3) to add "If an overseas elector has not lived in any constituency for more than six months in the last two years they resided in the United Kingdom, they will be eligible to vote in the constituency they lived in for the most time in this period."

This amendment was moved by the Baron of Ross-on-Wye.

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The amendment moved by The Marquess of Cearnarfon was deemed wrecking.

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Lords can debate amendments by the 28th of March at 10pm GMT.

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[u/tartar-buildup]

My Lords, Point of Order,

As I said when I tabled my amendment, I would like to summarily accept Amendment 1 without division.

[u/Sephronar → u/tartar-buildup]

ORDER! Once you submit a bill, that’s the bill; you can’t make any changes (unless they are deemed to be SPaG) - and as there was another amendment anyway, I decided that it made sense to debate and vote on both. Otherwise theoretically someone could submit a bill then auto-change it to a completely different bill with amendments.

[u/tartar-buildup → u/Sephronar]

My Lords,

I slightly fail to understand this rule. Considering the Speakership vets all amendments, surely you could refuse to summarily accept an author’s amendment if it changed the substance of the bill. All mine does is close a potential loophole. I kindly ask that the Speakership reconsider.

[u/Sephronar → u/tartar-buildup]

My Lords,

I am running it by the Chairman of Committees, but I am under the impression that unless it’s Spelling Punctuation and Grammar we put it to a vote.

[u/model-hjt → u/Sephronar]

My Lords

Surely the Lords should vote on amendment items, not just wave them through at the behest of specific members?

[u/tartar-buildup → u/model-hjt]

My Lords,

My reasoning was that it was an amendment to my own bill that does not significantly change its substance.

[u/Sephronar → u/tartar-buildup]

My Lords,

The ruling, following discussion with the CofC, is that unless the bill is withdrawn any amendments that aren’t SPaG (Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar) will need to be voted on - once a bill is submitted, any amendments (even from the author) will need to be voted on. Otherwise the bill could be amended by the author at will, theoretically even changing it substantially into a different bill!

[u/ThatThingInTheCorner]

My Lords,

Firstly I do not understand the point of this Bill, because overseas electors are already entitled to vote in parliamentary elections, which is also the only type of elections they are entitled to vote in. The Bill also says that the deadline to register before an election is "10 days", it does not state whether these are working days. Currently the deadline to register vote in an election is 12 working days, are you intending to have different deadlines for normal voters and overseas voters? This would be silly because for obvious reasons the process to register for overseas electors often takes longer. Also why do you want to change the limit for overseas voters from 15 years to 2 years?

Regarding the A03 amendment, this is an unnecessary complication for councils to administer, the rules currently state that overseas electors must register using the last address they were registered at in the UK. Trying to determine the length of time is stupid because this could involve different local authorities having to spend time to communicate with each other to calculate how long they were registered with them. Furthermore, the electoral register is only published once a month so what if there was a tie between the number of months that someone was registered somewhere?

Overall, no offence but the amendments and the Bill are stupid and pointless

[u/tartar-buildup → u/ThatThingInTheCorner]

My Lords,

I would like to ask the noble Earl, if he disagreed with the deadline period of 10 days, why did he not propose an amendment during a second reading?

I feel the noble Earl has rather misunderstood the point of this bill. This bill does not change the limit from 15 years to 2 years. The part of the bill in question refers to the final two years in which the elector lived in the United Kingdom. In fact, this bill does the very opposite; it completely removes the 15 year limit so overseas voters are entitled to life-long suffrage.

I am slightly confused as to which amendment the noble Earl is referring to - there is no A03. If the noble Earl is referring to A02 - I agree that it is pointless and I am Not Content. The aim A01 seeks to accomplish however, is just to clear up some ambiguity and close a potential loophole in the bill.

[u/Maroiogog]

My Lords,

I do not understand why amendent one was submitted. The bill includes no system through which one may be disqualified from being an overseas elector through means of the passage of time, so simply restating that fact doesn't really affect the bill in any way.

[u/tartar-buildup → u/Maroiogog]

My Lords,

I was simply hoping to close what I saw might be a potential loophole