In July 2021, the government published its long-awaited Elections Bill which makes changes to the administration and conduct of elections with the stated aim of ensuring that ‘UK elections remain secure, fair, modern, inclusive and transparent.’ Find out more about the Bill here.
With input from our members, Centenary Action has published a briefing on the Bill.
Read our full briefing here
Increased violence, abuse and harassment is one of the barriers to the political participation and representation of women and marginalised groups. While the Bill goes some way to addressing this, there are multiple omissions from the Bill, which is a missed opportunity to achieve equal representation. Moreover, the introduction of voter ID will have a damaging effect on marginalised groups and risks undermining the principles of fair and equal participation that have been at the heart of British democracy since the adoption of universal, equal suffrage in 1928.
Summary of Recommendations
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Intimidation of candidates and campaigners: We welcome the introduction of prohibiting an individual is found guilty of a specified offence from standing or holding any elected office for an appropriate amount of time. However, we call on the Government to extend the ban from 5 to 10 years to reflect the severity of the offence and serve as an effective deterrent.
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Tackling Sexual Offences by Elected Representatives: Due to the constant interaction between elected officials and vulnerable constituents, allowing those on the sex offenders register to become MPs, without even declaring that they are on the register, is a safeguarding issue. We suggest an amendment to Part 5, section 26 on candidate disqualification which strikes a balance between upholding democratic freedom while also safeguarding constituents and staff.
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Transparency to improve representation: The Government should implement Section 106 of the Equality Act 2010, which is an important piece of legislation that enables Government to require political parties to collect data on candidates with protected characteristics. The commencement of this legislation would improve political representation and transparency.
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Greater powers for constituents holding elected representatives to account: Following the case of Rob Roberts MP, the Recall of MPs Act 2015 should be amended to ensure MPs who have been found to have carried out abuse or harassment can be recalled by their constituents and that this can be applied retrospectively.
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Voter ID: Voter fraud relating to misrepresenting one’s identity is simply not a tangible issue. Out of all alleged cases of electoral fraud in the 2019 elections, only 33 related to personation fraud at the polling station – this comprises 0.000057% of the over 58 million votes cast in all the elections that took place that year. Disadvantaged groups, especially women and people from ethnic minority backgrounds, would be disproportionately impacted by the introduction of Voter ID and disenfranchised.