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.

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, including requiring voters to provide a form of identification at polling stations before voting. In line with the manifesto commitment, the Government plans to run pilot schemes in a number of local authority areas in 2018 that will test the requirement for voters to present ID before voting. Pilots will help to identify the best way of administering this new requirement.

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.