Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, for what reason a young person's railcard is not valid for use in local and national elections as voter ID; and if he will take steps to make the young person's railcard a valid form of voter ID.

The Government carefully considered a wide range of documents when selecting which acceptable forms of identification to use at polling stations . It is essential that the list of accepted identification includes those owned by the majority of the electorate, but also that the list can be effectively administered by polling station staff. Evidence from pilots showed that use of a young person's rail card was very low where they were trialled in Woking in 2018. Young person's railcards are also generally offered in digital and physical formats but digital formats are not currently accepted as voter identification. It was judged that allowing a physical version of a young person's railcard but not a digital version could lead to confusion.

Cabinet Office research shows that 98% of electors already own a form of photographic identification (in date or expired) that is accepted under the changes and this increases to 99% for those ages 18-29. A number of student cards are accredited by the Proof of Age Standards Scheme, and so are accepted. This includes the National Union of Students endorsed 'TOTUM +' student card, and a Young Scot card, meaning there are nationally available student cards that will be accepted as identification in polling stations.

The Government has committed in legislation to review the voter identification policy after implementation and, as set out previously, will consider appropriate changes to the list of accepted identification documents as part of this process.