Commentary on Sections Schedule 4: Amendments to do with Part 1
105.Paragraphs 1 to 20 make amendments to the 1983 Act. Several of these amendments restrict the application of sections of the 1983 Act which currently apply to all of the United Kingdom so that they apply only in Northern Ireland, since those sections are replaced by the new sections inserted by sections 1, 4 and 5 and Schedule 1 which apply in Great Britain.
106.Paragraphs 2, 3, 4, 15 and 21 make amendments to the 1983 Act and the Representation of the People Act 1985 so that a registration officer must remove a person from the register if the person’s current registration is the result of an application made under the new system by someone else. The effect is similar to the effect of section 10ZE(1)(c) of the 1983 Act (inserted by paragraph 1 of Schedule 1 to the Act), but these amendments apply that effect to the special types of registration to which that new section does not apply.
107.Paragraph 5 amends section 9(2) of the 1983 Act so that it is clear that a person will only be included on a register in the United Kingdom pursuant to an application for registration.
108.Paragraph 6 amends section 9A(1) of the 1983 Act to set out the scope of the general duty on registration officers, which could otherwise be reduced by the amendment made by paragraph 5(2).
109.Paragraphs 7 and 8 amend the requirements for the renewal of anonymous registrations in Great Britain so that it will not be necessary to make a complete application for registration each year as at present. Instead, once the anonymous registration is in place it will only be necessary to make an application for anonymity under section 9B of the 1983 Act in order to renew the entry each year. This means that it will only be necessary for the full verification process to apply to an application for a new anonymous registration, or for an anonymous registration under a different name or address.
110.Paragraph 12(2) inserts provisions into section 13A of the 1983 Act to provide for the manner in which registration officers must give effect to changes to registers in Great Britain resulting from the new provisions relating to applications for registration and alterations to registers. Paragraph 12(3) allows certain successful applicants to be added to the register up to the date of publication of the revised register instead of having to wait to the update published the following month.
111.Paragraph 20 gives additional powers to make regulations for Great Britain in relation to the conduct of canvasses, following up canvass requests and invitations for applications to which no responses have been received, and enabling registration officers to share information to ensure that proxies meet the requirement to be registered before they are appointed (see section 3). The existing criminal offence for non-disclosure of information to a registration officer will continue to have effect.
112.Paragraph 24 repeals sections 23(1) and 30 to 37 of the Political Parties and Elections Act 2009 concerning the previous voluntary and compulsory schemes of individual electoral registration in Great Britain which are being replaced by this Act, and the previous powers on data schemes, which will be superseded by those contained in the Act.