Speeches by Cocking.

“Is the Minister confident that when we collect all this data, and the Boundary Commission and Electoral Commission get it, they will be able to analyse it to make sure that all constituencies at the next general election fall within their parameters for how many electors each MP needs to represent, to make sure that no…”

“I am arguing that, if we want to lower the voting age, we need to have a debate about when someone becomes an adult. We can absolutely have that debate, and if the Government decide that we want votes at 16, we need to consider a number of other age limits. I would not change any of them, and I would not reduce the vot…”

“My hon. Friend makes an important point, and that is why Opposition amendments 26 and 27 are very important, because they go some way—not the whole way, but some way—to mitigating what he has just outlined.”

“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Dr Allin-Khan. We are coming at this debate in the wrong way. We need to look at when someone becomes an adult in this country, rather than at an arbitrary age at which it is acceptable to vote. The last Labour Government obviously thought that people become adults at …”

“It is a pleasure to serve with you in the Chair, Dame Siobhain. I support Opposition amendments 26 and 27 in the name of my hon. Friend the Member for Hamble Valley, but I want to outline my concerns about automatic voter registration. I think the way electors currently register themselves to vote is perfectly fine and…”

“Some people will be automatically enrolled who have chosen, under the current system, not to be on the electoral roll, but it is a question of fairness. If we are not having that across the country, all at the same time, it will create an unfair election result. As I understand it, it will be up to Ministers to choose …”

“Q We have not touched on this with this group of witnesses: Richard, what are your views on automatic voter registration? In particular, what are your views on a situation where not everybody would be automatically enrolled at the same time for the same general election, potentially creating two groups of the electorat…”

“Q If you are going to take those recommendations forward and do automatic voter registration across Wales, it is your view that everyone should be done in the same Senedd election, rather than it being done in two halves, for example? Karen Jones: My understanding is that that is the plan in Wales. We will be working t…”

“Q I should declare that when I was a councillor, I did a number of things with Councillor Golds on similar committees at the Local Government Association. Harry, earlier you mentioned a percentage of people in your data who get turned away at polling stations. Was that all because they did not have the appropriate ID? …”

“Q May I briefly follow that up? Is it your opinion, then, that if we are going to have automatic voter registration, everyone should be automatically registered for the same general election? Vijay Rangarajan: Yes; there should be some uniformity of registration across the UK and for other elections, or else a voter wi…”

“Q Karen, I have a question for you. You said that in Wales there have been four pilot areas of automatic voter registration. For my benefit and that of the Committee, could you tell us where they were? Were they for council elections? If they were, why did you decide to do them for council elections and not a Senedd el…”

“Q I would like to talk about the 8 million people you reckon are not registered. Some of those people might choose not to register to vote, and the Government’s intention in the Bill is to bring in automatic voter registration. Do you see any issues with that if they are not all automatically registered for the same ge…”

“If the Minister issued new oil and gas licences for the North sea we could produce more of our oil and gas here at home. That would mitigate some of the problems that he has just raised about being over-reliant on oil states.”

“So you do not reckon the market is ready. If the Bill passes and commonhold becomes the default, am I correct in thinking that you do not think the market as it currently stands with the solicitors and conveyancing process is ready for that big change?”

“Does anyone else want to comment on that?”

“Hang on—what do you mean by “education and training for the public”? The public go out and get a solicitor, who should be advising them on all these matters. We do not need to train the public to say, “This is what you need to do”.”

“I have a few questions about conveyancing. I think most of us can agree, particularly those of us on this Committee, that managing agents are the biggest baddies in the leasehold and commonhold system, closely followed by solicitors and conveyancing. I do not think they point out to people what they are buying—what the…”

“Obviously you have a lot of experience and you know a lot of the detail behind all of it, so if you were advising Government, would you say five, 10, 20 or 60 years?”

“Douglas, based on what you know now, and all the evidence and your experience, where would you put the figure? How long would you give?”

“I am Lewis Cocking, the Conservative Member of Parliament for Broxbourne, and I am a leaseholder as well.”