Voter Registration, Election Turnout and Compulsory Voting

Lord Robathan Excerpts

Thursday 3rd September 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)]

I am all for innovation in election processes, but that might cause some problems among members of our community who do not like to take part in gambling. However, we have been doing some voter piloting. The key thing here is to tackle the barriers to people getting involved in the democratic process. We know what they are. The Electoral Commission did a review very recently on this, and people were very clear that it is lack of information about parties and candidates, negative perception of the voting system and that voting is too complicated. Anyone who has been on the doorstep trying to persuade someone to go out to vote will realise the misconception about how voting works. We have to tackle those barriers before we start thinking about the more exciting innovation that my noble friend speaks about.

[Lord Robathan (Con)]

My Lords, is this not a question of letting people choose whether they wish to vote or register to vote? This seems an easy thing. I hate to agree with the Government on this, but taking caution is a very sensible thing to do.

[Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)]

I did not expect to get that support, but I am very grateful for it. The Government support the use of pilots to test and evaluate electoral reforms—which is exactly what we have been doing through this process—where there is a clear case for doing so, but we do not have any plans for piloting compulsory voting at this time. We want to remove those barriers to participation, make it easier for eligible electors to register and vote, and make sure that we encourage the 7 or 8 million voters who could vote but who are currently not registered to get on the register.