Oral Answers to Questions

Owen Thompson Excerpts

Thursday 8th September 2022 Commons Chamber

[Owen Thompson (Midlothian) (SNP)]

10. If the Committee will make an assessment of the potential effect of the Elections Act 2022 on the impartiality of the Electoral Commission.

[Martyn Day (Linlithgow and East Falkirk) (SNP)]

11. If the Committee will make an assessment of the potential effect of the Elections Act 2022 on the impartiality of the Electoral Commission.

--- Later in debate ---

[Christian Matheson]

As I said in my previous answer, the Speaker’s Committee has made no assessment on this particular matter. Any changes to the Elections Act will be a matter for the House, and I am sure that the hon. Gentleman will pursue those avenues in other areas of its business.

[Owen Thompson]

The road down which the UK has been travelling is increasingly concerning. It involves removing our human rights, threatening the removal of the European Court of Human Rights, and then gutting the impartiality and powers of the Electoral Commission in the Elections Act 2022 by Government diktat and the rejection of all Opposition amendments. This follows on from suggestions that no new independent ethics adviser will be appointed under the new Prime Minister, which would further diminish independent investigation. Given those facts, does the representative of the Speaker’s Committee agree with all but one of the board members that the Elections Act seriously undermines the independence of the Electoral Commission?

[Christian Matheson]

Let me repeat the statement that the Electoral Commission itself has issued: it believes that the introduction of a strategy and policy statement would be inconsistent with the role of an independent Electoral Commission. We are currently engaged in consultation on the Government’s draft strategy and policy statement. The Commission will continue to act in an independent and impartial way in order to help maintain public confidence in elections throughout the UK.