Question to the Northern Ireland Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government whether they intend to introduce a procedure to replace a lost postal ballot for elections in Northern Ireland.

In Northern Ireland, voters who have spoilt their postal ballot paper or accidentally marked it in a way they had not intended may apply for a replacement postal ballot paper to be issued, providing the original ballot paper and Declaration of Identity document are returned to the Chief Electoral Officer. For security reasons, additional ballot papers are not issued to voters claiming to have lost their original.

The Government has no plans to alter the security provisions currently in place, but we continue to keep all aspects of electoral law under review.