Just before the Summer recess, the House of Lords began formal consideration of the hugely significant  Electoral Registration and Administration Bill.  Among other things this introduces Individual Electoral Registration (IER) for Great Britain.  The system has been in operation in Northern Ireland since 2002. I was closely in involved in working with other Liberal Democrats to change the proposals first put forward in the Government's white paper which could have had the effect of significantly reducing the levels of voter registration in Great Britain.  Mark Williams wrote about them here . Since then, there has been a great deal of movement in the ways that we wanted.  In particular, the Government has abandoned its plan to permit an 'opt-out' from electoral registration; this was an idea that would have led the disaffected inexorably to disenfranchisement.  They have also conceded that there must be a continuing penalty for failing to register. Our guiding light as we deal with the legislation in its more final form will be to ensure that the Bill has at its heart the objective of preserving and adding to the completeness of the register, as well as improving its accuracy.  Contrary to Labour's protestations, the existing system of registration is very poor at ensuring everyone who should be on the register is on the register.  When the Draft Bill was first published, the most recent Electoral Commission research suggested the present household registration system succeeded in enfranchising around 92% of those who are entitled to vote.  Since