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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 20 October 2025 to Question 78240 on Absent Voting: British Nationals Abroad, whether he plans to take steps to help tackle postal delays for overseas electors.

The Government is committed to fixing the foundations of our electoral processes.

As set out in the policy paper, Restoring trust in our democracy: Our strategy for modern and secure elections (17/07/2025), the Government will introduce a package of measures intended to improve the resilience and capacity of the postal voting system overall. These measures include moving the postal vote application deadline forward by three working days. The deadline for candidate nominations will also be moved forward in order to allow returning officers more time to proof the ballot papers for printers, in turn giving more time for the next part of the process to get underway, and in particular to enable postal ballot papers to be printed and issued to postal voters at an earlier point.

These changes will benefit all administrators and voters, including those living overseas.