Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps the Government has taken to implement the recommendations of Sir Eric Pickles' review of electoral fraud entitled Securing the ballot, not including the voter ID pilots planned for the May 2018 local elections.

The Government’s view is that electoral fraud is unacceptable on any level. Sir Eric Pickles’ review made a number of recommendations for strengthening the integrity of the electoral process. In addition to the voter ID pilots taking place in the May 2018 elections, Tower Hamlets will also pilot changes to postal voting. The Government is also seeking to end the practice of postal vote harvesting through measures that will prohibit party campaigners from handling postal votes, and apply a limit to the number of postal ballots that any one individual can hand in at a polling station. Additionally, the Electoral Commission has addressed 7 recommendations through guidance in response to the Pickles Review.

The Government is considering the way forward on the other recommendations made by Sir Eric Pickles, and will continue to consider how to improve the integrity of electoral processes more generally.