	The UK's politically independent Electoral Commission had been pushing for such a reform for some time. In September 2010, Mark Harper, the government's Minister for Constitutional Reform, announced the plan. A spokesman for the Electoral Reform Society, an independent NGO, expressed some reservations: "You're potentially looking at registration rates in the 50% region. It will make some problems worse.". One recent study has also suggested that it will lead to a decline in electoral registration, unless other measures are put in place to offset these reductions.