Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answers by Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth on 3 July 2017 (HL3), 15 September 2017 (HL1448), and 13 October 2017 (HL1671), and by Lord Duncan of Springbank on 21 December 2017 (HL3975), 16 March 2018 (HL6045), 20 November 2018 (HL11393 and HL11394), and 17 May (HL15556), what plans they have to introduce legislation to prevent any abuse of the electoral system in the UK.

On 5th May the Minister for the Constitution announced a range of new measures to safeguard UK elections by cracking down on intimidation, influence and disinformation.

As part of that, the Government has committed to: legislating for a new electoral offence of intimidation; clarifying the electoral offence of undue influence of a voter; implementing an imprints regime for digital election material; and launching a consultation on electoral integrity. Before formally launching the consultation, the Government will be inviting the views of interested groups to establish what the consultation could seek to address, and also see what scope there is for broad cross-party agreement.

Any legislative changes relating to issues or specific cases in Northern Ireland would, however, be a matter for the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland.