Electoral Commission Reports on the 2024 Elections: Government Response
(Limited Text - Ministerial Extracts only)
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The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government (Rushanara Ali)
Our democratic systems and institutions are strong and are rightly admired around the world. This Government will build on this, further strengthening our democracy and encouraging full participation from eligible voters.
It was a challenge to deliver separate local and general elections in 2024, following complex reforms to electoral law and parliamentary boundary changes. The entire electoral community rose to this challenge. I am grateful to returning officers, electoral registration officers and their teams for their hard work and dedication to the successful delivery of these polls—and to every volunteer who gave their time to support the democratic process.
The Electoral Commission, in line with its duties, reported in September 2024 on voter identification at the 2024 general election; and in November 2024 on how that election was delivered, as well as the delivery of the May local elections, police and crime commissioner elections and mayoral elections in England and Wales. I am pleased to publish today the Government’s response to the Electoral Commission’s reports.
I welcome the Commission’s views and recommendations and thank them for their work. I note the many positives from their findings: most importantly that the elections were well run, and electors were highly satisfied with the processes of registration and voting, despite delivering two sets of polls in short succession. I welcome the marked increase in voter confidence since 2019: 83% of the public reported a high confidence in the polls and 87% believed the polls were free from fraud and abuse. Those numbers are a testament to the efforts from across the electoral community in the intervening period—but also an encouragement to improve further.
I also note the challenges that the commission’s reports highlight. We treat their recommendations seriously; this response sets out what this Government are doing about them. Disability must not be a barrier to participation: there is clearly more to be done to help disabled voters access the support that is their legal right where they need it. We must also tackle the unacceptable intimidatory and abusive behaviour some candidates face when standing for public office; review and improve voter identification rules, to make it easier for legitimate voters; reduce the risk to delivery through improved electoral processes; and widen participation in our democracy.
This Government will work with our partners to increase participation in elections, to ensure a wider range of voices is heard and that people’s views are fairly represented. We will deliver on our manifesto commitments to improve registration, extend the right to vote to those 16 and over for all UK elections, review and improve the voter ID rules, and strengthen the political finance framework.
These reforms are not the sum total of our ambition. We continue to work with our partners to scrutinise and improve our election processes, even as we reflect further on the commission’s reports and develop practical responses.
In parallel to this response to the Electoral Commission’s reports, I am also pleased to publish the findings of an independent, nationally representative public opinion survey related to voting in the UK, undertaken by Ipsos. This is the third wave of a set of surveys conducted on behalf of the Government to understand elector attitudes to and experiences of several measures in the Elections Act 2022, including voter ID, accessibility and absent voting. Further work will follow, with this research contributing to the Government’s evaluation of the impact of the Elections Act 2022 on the 2024 general election. That evaluation will be published in spring 2025. This Government are determined that all eligible voters will be able to cast their vote, with support where necessary.
The Government will work closely with the Electoral Commission and key stakeholders from across the sector to further understand and assess the impact of recent and future reforms. I am pleased to announce that we will be bringing all this work together into an overall Government strategy for elections, setting out the Government’s approach to elections and electoral reform for this Parliament. This will be published later this year.
We are the custodians of an internationally renowned democracy that has endured and evolved over hundreds of years: we will protect our democracy, fix its foundations, and ensure it continues to grow to become stronger, more inclusive and more vibrant than ever before.
The associated documents will be deposited in the Libraries of both Houses.
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