Electoral Registration and Administration Bill 2012-13: progress of the Bill

The Electoral Registration and Administration Bill 2012-13 was introduced on 10 May 2012. The Bill makes provision for a legislative framework for the introduction of a new system of individual electoral registration (IER) under which electors will be registered individually instead of by household.

This Note summarises the progress of the Bill. It supplements Research Paper 12/26 which was produced for the Bill’s second reading in the House of Commons on 23 May 2012. A programme motion made provision for three days in Committee of the whole House. The first Committee day took place on 18 June 2012, the second on 25 June 2012 and the third day of Committee and remaining stages on 27 June 2012. No amendments were made to the Bill.

The second reading of the Bill in the House of Lords was on 24 July 2012 and the first day in Committee of the whole House took place on Monday 29 October 2012. Further consideration of the Bill was postponed after disagreement about the admissibility of an amendment concerning the dates of the Parliamentary boundary reviews.

On 19 December 2012 the Electoral Commission issued a press notice calling for consideration of the Bill to be resumed because ‘without urgent progress it will not be possible for IER to be delivered to the Government’s current timetable’. The Committee stage of the Bill in the House of Lords was resumed on 14 January 2013. An amendment relating to the timing of constituency boundary reviews was agreed after a division. Report stage and third reading were taken on 23 January. An amendment was passed on dealing with queuing at polling stations at 10pm. Lords amendments are due to be debated on 29 January in the Commons.

The Electoral Commission has published briefings for the second reading debates and the Committee and report stages in both Houses.

Library Standard Notes 6255, Electoral offences since 2010, and 3667, Postal voting and electoral fraud 2001-09 provide information about electoral malpractice.