The Archbishop of York: My Lords, I too am very thankful for the White Paper. I am particularly grateful at how this Government are committed to assisting poor countries to take advantage of the opportunities presented by an open global trading system. I am also grateful that when the Secretary of State for International Development addressed the General Synod of the Church of England he reaffirmed what the Prime Minister has said; namely, that deficit reduction will not be achieved on the backs of the poor and that the 0.7 per cent will be retained to be given to those poor countries.To have more joined-up thinking between that department and the Minister's department, will the Minister ensure that they do not simply support poorer countries? As some people have said, it is one thing to give a poor man a fish, but it would be better to teach the poor man how to fish.

Lord Green of Hurstpierpoint: Trade is at the heart of what it takes to achieve successful and social development. Yes, the Government are committed to their plans to move towards the 0.7 per cent target for official development assistance. As my right honourable friend the Secretary of State said in the other place earlier today, we will commit to ensuring that our support for trade facilitation as part of our official development programmes remains at least at the current level. There is ample evidence that helping countries to improve border controls, regulatory environments and communications of all kinds has an enormous effect on trade, which in turn has an effect on people's ability to earn their own livelihoods and find their way into the economic and social mainstream. So we are completely in agreement with the instinct that the most reverend Primate calls for.  

On the Parliamentary Voting Systems and Constituencies Bill, the Archbishop said:

The Archbishop of York: I, too, support the amendment of the noble Lord, Lord Low. I hope that when we talk about functions in relation to voters' disabilities, we do not forget one particular category of people-that is, deaf people. It is no good getting people in if there is no British Sign Language available. I hope that that will be taken into account as well.

The Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster (Lord Strathclyde): I thank the noble Lord, Lord Low, for the way in which he introduced his amendment and referred to the discussions we had in Committee. Like him, I thought that they were constructive and useful. I also appreciate the words of the most reverend Primate the Archbishop of York.  

The Archbishop of York: My Lords, the incident referred to by the noble Lord happened in my province, Sheffield. Had that happened in Africa or India, we would have said it was scandalous that people had been in the queue for three hours but, because the voting had to stop at 10 o'clock, were told to go away. There would have been an outcry that people had been queuing for hours and were denied a vote. For me, the purpose of the law is to state public policy. This amendment is a statement that such an occurrence must not be allowed to happen again, and the regulations should make that clear. If you do not prescribe it now, the same will happen somewhere else. The African saying, "People in Britain have watches, while in Africa we have time", might come true in the end.

The Advocate-General for Scotland (Lord Wallace of Tankerness): I thank the noble Lord, Lord Lipsey, for returning to this important issue in his amendment. Many of us who watched the election night coverage of the scenes at certain polling stations where people who had been queuing were not given the opportunity to vote found that it offended our sense of justice as democrats. The Government certainly take it seriously. The Electoral Commission's report found that queues built up at a number of polling stations on 6 May for various reasons. It identified 27 polling stations across the country. In most cases, it found that the common factor was inadequate planning processes and contingency arrangements that were not in place........... We previously assured the House, in a reasonably long debate on this issue in Committee, that the Bill already gives the chief counting officer the necessary powers and discretion to ensure that the referendum runs smoothly. She will have sufficient flexibility to decide what is right in particular circumstances, including the steps that have already been taken by the Electoral Commission to ensure that some of the problems that occurred on 6 May are not repeated. This will include all counting officers having effective planning processes and contingency plans. We advised the Committee that the Electoral Commission had indicated that the chief counting officer intends to issue directions to counting officers on the maximum number of electors who will be allocated to any polling station, and the associated minimum number of staff who must be present at each polling station to ensure that polling runs smoothly and that all electors who wish to vote are able to. The Government take this seriously and are considering the Electoral Commission's report.  

The Archbishop of York: The amendment simply refers to taking measures to ensure that all those wishing to vote and arriving at a polling station within the appointed hours are able to do so. What could be the unintended consequences of that?

Lord Wallace of Tankerness: The Electoral Commission and the chief counting officer ultimately have responsibility for the smooth running of the election. Certainly-this may well be because we are running relatively close to polling day-they have taken the view that making such a significant change could have unintended consequences. In their judgment, it could lead to some inconsistencies in different parts of the country, and it would be regrettable if, in trying to address one very serious problem, we opened up some other unintended and unforeseen problems. I do not think we would be thanked for that, and therefore I urge the noble Lord to withdraw his amendment.