I beg to move, in page 25, line 2, after "prepare," to insert "and publish."

There are two further Amendments standing in my name and the name of my hon. Friend the Member for Mile End (Mr. Piratin). They are connected, and with permission, I will deal with them at the same time. All three Amendments are connected with the proposed register. The second of these Amendments is, in line 8, at the end, to insert: and such two registers shall be published together. I do not know the intention in the preparing of the register as it is presented in the Bill—whether it is just to be prepared by the registration officer and kept by his side, or what is to be done. I and my colleague consider that the Bill should definitely provide that the register should not only be prepared, but that the register of local government electors should be prepared and published and that, in the terms of the second Amendment, the two registers shall so far as practicable be combined, the names of persons registered only as local government electors being marked to indicate that fact, and such two registers shall be published together. We consider it important to make matters as easy as possible for those who are interested in participating in local government elections and to ensure that they know exactly where they stand as between their voting rights in a Parliamentary election and their voting rights in a local government election. In our third Amendment, we propose, in line 11, to leave out "qualifying date," and to insert "date of publication of the register." It will be seen that this, Amendment would make subsection (3) read: The elections for which any register of local government electors is to be used shall be determined by reference to the date of publication of the register in the same way as in the case of the register of parliamentary electors. We feel that if these Amendments were accepted the position of local government electors and their relation to Parliamentary elections would be made abundantly clear. There would be every opportunity for them to see the published register, to compare the two registers and to know that the date was related to the actual publication of the register concerned.