Question

To ask the hon. Member for Lancaster and Fleetwood, representing the Speaker's Committee on the Electoral Commission, whether the Committee has had recent discussions with the Electoral Commission on the level of sign up for the Voter Authority Certificate.

The Committee discussed access to and uptake of Voter Authority Certificates at its recent public evidence session in March. A transcript of the session is available on the Committee's website.

The Commission has said that while increases in awareness of voter ID requirement have been strong, Voter Authority Certificate applications were lower than might have been expected.

It has noted that this may reflect the number of people wanting to vote in these elections, take-up of postal and proxy voting, or that some voters have not applied in time for the deadline.

The Commission will consider the levels of take-up and the reasons for this as part of its evaluation of the implementation of voter ID. This will include detailed public survey work.