Member

My noble friend Lady Ritchie and the noble Lord, Lord Rogan, asked about absentee votes for Northern Ireland. The reality is that the checks are the most stringent in the whole of the UK. As in the rest of the UK, applications are checked to ensure that the name, address and national insurance number of the applicant is valid. Requiring the digital registration number is a further level of security check that does not exist elsewhere. The signature on the “return to postal vote” pack is required to match that on the application. If anyone has evidence of abuse of the absent vote process, it should be provided to the police—although, as we have just heard from my noble friend, a suitcase full of votes may require a slightly different conversation to be had.