The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (Dehenna Davison)
My hon. Friend the Minister for Faith and Communities (Baroness Scott of Brybrook) has made the following written ministerial statement:
Through the Elections Act 2022, Parliament legislated to improve the accountability of the Electoral Commission. Following the electoral fraud exposed in Tower Hamlets, then, Sir Eric Pickles’ 2016 report “Securing the Ballot: Review into Electoral Fraud” recommended that a greater emphasis needed to be placed on tackling electoral fraud in Great Britain and that the existing system of oversight of the Electoral Commission by the Speaker’s Committee on the Electoral Commission did not provide an effective third-party check on the Commission’s performance.
To facilitate scrutiny by the UK Parliament of the Electoral Commission’s work while respecting the Commission’s operational independence, sections 4A and 4B of the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000 (“PPERA”)—inserted by section 16 of the Elections Act 2022—provided for a power for the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities to designate a strategy and policy statement for the Commission.
The draft statement sets out the Government’s strategic and policy priorities and the roles and responsibilities of the Commission in enabling the Government to meet those priorities, such as the Government’s determination to tackle issues such as voter fraud, to improve accessibility of elections and to improve participation. These are important aims and ones it would be wholly appropriate for an electoral regulator to support. The draft statement also sets out guidance relating to particular matters in respect of which the Commission has functions.
The procedural requirements for the statement—set out in new sections 4C to 4E of PPERA—require, among other things, the Secretary of State (Michael Gove) to consider the views of the Electoral Commission, the Speaker’s Committee and the Levelling Up, Housing and Communities Committee on a draft statement, making any changes the Secretary of State deems necessary, before laying a draft statement and a report on the Government’s response to the consultation before Parliament for representations to be made.
On 22 August 2022, the Government published a draft statement on www.gov.uk and wrote to the statutory consultees as well as Members of the Parliamentary Parties Panel and other relevant stakeholders to inform them about the start of the statutory consultation. The statutory consultation closed on 20 December 2022. We also received and took into consideration comments from the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee and the Association of Electoral Administrators. The Government are grateful for the consultees’ time and engagement with the consultation on the draft statement.
On 8 June 2023, the Government laid before Parliament a document containing the revised draft strategy and policy statement. Specifically, pursuant to section 4C(4) of PPERA, the document includes the explanation of the Secretary of State’s proposals, those proposals set out in the form of a draft strategy and policy statement and the report prepared in accordance with section 4C(3) of PPERA that sets out the Government’s response to the consultation carried out in accordance with section 4C(2) of PPERA. The Government are clear that the statement must always be compatible with the foundational principle that the Commission should remain operationally independent. The Commission will only be required to have regard to the statement in the exercise of its functions. Notwithstanding this, the Secretary of State has listened to the feedback of the consultees and has amended the draft statement to make a number of clarifications and provide additional reassurances that the statement in no way amounts to the Government directing the Commission.
Pursuant to section 4C(5) and (6) of PPERA, this document has been laid before both Houses for a 60-day period within which Members of both Houses may make representations in relation to the document. The Secretary of State must consider these representations, before preparing the draft statement for laying for parliamentary approval. The 60-day period excludes any period when Parliament is dissolved or prorogued, or when both Houses are not sitting for more than four days. It will end on 14 September 2023.
To facilitate parliamentarians’ access to the document and exercise of their right to make representations, the document has been deposited in the Libraries of both Houses on 13 June.
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