Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answers by Lord Wallace of Saltaire on 8 July (HL745) and 28 July (HL1102), and in the light of representations made about the names and descriptions of political parties appearing on ballot papers and allegations of electoral malpractice, whether they will review the powers and governance of the Electoral Commission.

The Electoral Commission has a statutory role in registering party descriptions, and already has the power to not register certain types of descriptions, including those which are either offensive or misleading to the voter. These duties are set out in legislation and it is important that the Electoral Commission fulfils these efficiently and effectively. Following an incident earlier in the year when the Electoral Commission mistakenly registered an extremely offensive party description, an independent review made some recommendations about future practice which the Electoral Commission accepted.

The Government has no plans to review the powers and governance of the Electoral Commission. The 11th report of the Committee on Standards in Public Life, Review of the Electoral Commission, recommended that the role of the Electoral Commission should be streamlined and re-focused into two core roles as a regulator of (a) political party funding and (b) of electoral administration. This recommendation was accepted by Government and the Electoral Commission.