Mr. James Doorley:

There are many measures in the legislation promoting good technical responses, such as moving things online, pre-registration and a rolling register. However, there is something missing from the legislation, which is to empower the electoral commission to support the promotion of participation in elections and encourage registration. That cannot be done by one office. The electoral commission must have powers and resources to work with organisations that are supporting those communities, such as LGBT young people. One of our member organisations is BeLonG To, which is doing amazing work. If it was supported in a non-partisan way it could engage with young people from that community to ensure they are registered. The same could be done with ethnic minorities, young Travellers, young women and young people from different groups. We would like the Bill to be more ambitious and for the electoral commission to not solely be about making sure the technical aspects are all good. We need to reach out. While the electoral commission cannot do it all by itself, it should be able to work with groups, like we do at the moment. We work with the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage every year to encourage young people to register but we have very limited resources for that. There are other groups that could do that as well. We would like the Bill to be more ambitious and to provide for more engagement through those representatives groups.