This is a welcome and timely inquiry on one of the most significant set of reforms to elections since the UK became a democracy. At the same time, the inquiry can also only record a provisional assessment about the impact of the Elections Act for two reasons. Firstly, the main focus of the inquiry is on the impact of voter identification requirements. It is important to assess the impact that they have had on the May 2023 local elections since this was the first time that the requirements were enforce across all relevant elections. That said, the impact will be much more significant at a UK general election. Secondly, the Elections Act 2022 covers a huge range of changes to elections. The introduction of compulsory photographic requirements are the most visual media-grabbing change that has been made. But there are also changes to areas including the eligibility for postal voting and the electoral franchise. These have not yet come into full effect but will place significant pressure on electoral administrators in the coming months. The committee should therefore revisit the impact of the Act again in the future.

The UK government proposed an Elections Bill in 2021, which eventually gained royal assent in April 2022. During this time, members of the EIP team were regularly involved in: submitting written evidence to select committees, giving oral evidence to select committees, advising parliamentarians and civil society groups as part of the Democracy Defence Coalition, assisting with the drafting of parliamentary amendments, providing media comment and analysis, and regular blogs and analysis. Click the link to access some of the resources developed by the EIP for the Elections Act - alongside other materials for reference.

The UK government has introduced the Electoral Integrity Bill into parliament. This briefing summarises key background research relating to the Bill. Research shows that there is little evidence of personation in polling stations, but that there is a risk that strict photographic identification might reduce participation. Drawing from overseas experiences it is suggested that allowing citizens to use their poll card as a form of identity, cast provisional ballots, or vouch for their identity could overcome these problems.

This is a welcome and timely inquiry on one of the most significant set of reforms to elections since the UK became a democracy. In summary: the Committee should encourage the government to reinstate the parliamentary convention that major pieces of electoral law are considered by an independent Speaker’s Commission, in order to achieve cross-party consensus; some measures introduced in the Bill are welcome, such as requirements to include information on digital election material; the Elections Bill does not address the main defects within the electoral process, measured by academic research, including the disadvantages that the electoral system has on smaller parties and the millions of citizens missing from the electoral register. The Bill also includes measures which are very likely to adversely affect electoral integrity; nineteen recommendations are therefore made.

Watch video of the oral evidence of The Elections Bill to the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee. A synopsis of the written evidence can be found above.

This brief is a response to the request to submit evidence on the proposed move to a national electoral roll platform. This response is authored by the Directors of the Electoral Integrity Project, a world leading academic project which produces innovative and policy-relevant research on elections worldwide. The Directors’ joint and individual research expertise includes research on voter registration systems, including an international comparison of systems. In this submission, this response will draw attention to what is at stake in the design of registration systems and summarise recommendations from our research.

The Elections Bill, introduced to the House of Commons on 5th July 2021, stands to be one of the most significant pieces of legislation on electoral law for decades which will have major consequences for both reserved and devolved elections. Professor Toby S. James is writing to provide evidence based on academic research – although this submission does not cover all aspects of the Bill. This submission recommends that the committee encourages the UK government to pause the Election Bill to undertake a more collaborative, inclusive and cross-party approach to developing electoral law; the single-party, single-nation approach taken so far risks damaging public confidence in democratic institutions. The submission explores whether the UK government could amend the bill in collaboration with the Scottish Parliament to address problems such as low levels of voter registration and the absence of a complaints procedure.