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Speaker's Committee on the Electoral Commission

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Speaker's Committee on the Electoral Commission (42)

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To ask the hon. Member for Lancaster and Fleetwood, representing the Speaker's Committee on the Electoral Commission, when she expects the Commission's review into postal voting at the 2024 General Election to conclude.

Asked by
Melanie Ward (Labour)
Answering body
Speaker's Committee on the Electoral Commission
Type
Written questions
Status
Withdrawn
Date
12 November 2024
Reference
13948
House
House of Commons
The Electoral Reform Society has claimed that the Scottish local government elections, in which as many as 45,000 people may have been disfranchised, were a ““resounding success””. Will the hon. Gentleman ensure that, whatever form the report from the Electoral Commission takes, it contains a good deal more intellectual rigour than that report?
Asked by
Jim McGovern (Labour)
Answering body
Speaker's Committee on the Electoral Commission
Oral questions - Supplementary
Status
Answered
Date
21 May 2007
Reference
460 c975
House
House of Commons
Will my hon. Friend encourage Mr. Gould in particular to examine carefully the security of the postal vote system and to make urgent recommendations on how we can prevent its misuse?
Asked by
Viscount Hailsham (Conservative)
Answering body
Speaker's Committee on the Electoral Commission
Oral questions - Supplementary
Status
Answered
Date
21 May 2007
Reference
460 c975
House
House of Commons
Because two different voting systems were to be used, the Arbuthnott report recommended that the Scottish local and parliamentary elections should not take place on the same day. It said that that would reduce complexity and confusion and restrict the number of invalid ballot papers, yet the Labour party chose to blunder on, which led to many thousands losing their votes. Will my hon. Friend confirm that the Electoral Commission’s report will investigate how that could have happened and exactly who was responsible?
Asked by
Oliver Heald (Conservative)
Answering body
Speaker's Committee on the Electoral Commission
Oral questions - Supplementary
Status
Answered
Date
21 May 2007
Reference
460 c975
House
House of Commons
In the long list of things that the Electoral Commission will look into with regard to the Scottish elections, the hon. Gentleman did not mention proxy voting. He mentioned postal voting and there were problems with that, but in my constituency, where I have a large a number of constituents who work offshore, it has become increasingly clear that those people applied for postal votes when they should have been encouraged to apply for proxy votes. There was little information or publicity about proxy votes versus postal votes, and the importance of a proxy vote for those who were going to be away from home for some time before the election.
Asked by
Anne Begg (Labour)
Answering body
Speaker's Committee on the Electoral Commission
Oral questions - Supplementary
Status
Answered
Date
21 May 2007
Reference
460 c974
House
House of Commons
The Electoral Commission has gone on record as saying that it would prefer to have individual registration, which it thinks would assist the postal voting system to be tightened up. However, I will ensure that Mr. Gould’s attention is drawn to the specific point raised by my right hon. and learned Friend.
Answered by
Peter Viggers (Conservative)
Answering body
Speaker's Committee on the Electoral Commission
Type
Oral answers to questions
Date
21 May 2007
Reference
460 c975
House
House of Commons
I have looked at Mr. Gould’s curriculum vitae. He has an exceptional record of supervising, or assisting at, more than 100 elections in 70 different countries. I am confident that he will produce a rigorous report. Of course, it is the Electoral Commission’s statutory duty to report. Mr. Gould’s review will inform the Electoral Commission’s report.
Answered by
Peter Viggers (Conservative)
Answering body
Speaker's Committee on the Electoral Commission
Type
Oral answers to questions
Date
21 May 2007
Reference
460 c975
House
House of Commons
It is quite true that the issue of proxy voting was not in the list that I gave to the House. However, Mr. Gould will be instructed to look at all aspects of the elections and I will undertake to ensure that the hon. Lady’s point is drawn to his attention.
Answered by
Peter Viggers (Conservative)
Answering body
Speaker's Committee on the Electoral Commission
Type
Oral answers to questions
Date
21 May 2007
Reference
460 c974
House
House of Commons
It really is disconcerting that many of the problems that arose on 3 May were not only foreseeable, but foreseen. In 2004, the then Secretary of State for Scotland set up the Arbuthnott commission to examine the problems arising from having four separate voting systems in Scotland. My hon. Friend is correct that the commission recommended that the parliamentary and local elections should not be held on the same day. The decision that they should be held on the same day was taken by the Scottish Executive.
Answered by
Peter Viggers (Conservative)
Answering body
Speaker's Committee on the Electoral Commission
Type
Oral answers to questions
Date
21 May 2007
Reference
460 c975
House
House of Commons
It is true that Parliament has laid on the Electoral Commission two specific sets of responsibilities: one is to assist in the electoral process and advise returning officers, and the other is to report on elections. When the Electoral Commission makes a report and it has itself been involved in the matter in an operational role, it is always its practice to appoint an outside expert to advise on that so that its own role can also be scrutinised.
Answered by
Peter Viggers (Conservative)
Answering body
Speaker's Committee on the Electoral Commission
Type
Oral answers to questions
Date
21 May 2007
Reference
460 c974
House
House of Commons
Indeed. Mr. Ron Gould’s report will be independent and it will be published in full. He has been asked to look at all aspects of the elections, but with a particular focus on the high number of rejected ballots, the electronic counting process, the arrangements for postal voting, the decision to hold parliamentary and local government polls on the same day, the decision to combine the two parliamentary votes on one ballot sheet, the process by which key decisions were made and the role of the Electoral Commission itself in the preparation of the elections.
Answered by
Peter Viggers (Conservative)
Answering body
Speaker's Committee on the Electoral Commission
Type
Oral answers to questions
Date
21 May 2007
Reference
460 c974
House
House of Commons
Bearing in mind that the Electoral Commission bears much of the responsibility for the fiasco in Scotland, should there not be a fully independent inquiry, in which the Electoral Commission plays no part, so that we can get to the root of what happened, rather than having the same people making the same decisions and looking into the same issue?
Asked by
Andrew Rosindell (Conservative)
Answering body
Speaker's Committee on the Electoral Commission
Oral questions - 1st Supplementary
Status
Answered
Date
21 May 2007
Reference
460 c974
House
House of Commons
My hon. Friend will be aware that I have little faith in the Electoral Commission and think that it gets into all sorts of areas that it should not, but surely if there is any point at all in the commission it must sort out the debacle in Scotland, which was more characteristic of a banana republic. Can we have assurances that the report will be robust and quick?
Asked by
Andrew MacKay (Conservative)
Answering body
Speaker's Committee on the Electoral Commission
Oral questions - 1st Supplementary
Status
Answered
Date
21 May 2007
Reference
460 c974
House
House of Commons
The Electoral Commission has a statutory duty to report on the Scottish parliamentary elections. Following a request by the Scottish Executive, it will also report on the local government elections in Scotland. The commission has appointed an international specialist in electoral administration, Mr. Ron Gould, to lead a review of the elections. It announced the broad scope of the review on 14 May and further details are being announced today. I have asked the commission to place details of the approach and the timetable in the Library of the House.
Answered by
Peter Viggers (Conservative)
Answering body
Speaker's Committee on the Electoral Commission
Type
Oral answers to questions
Date
21 May 2007
Reference
460 c973-4
House
House of Commons
The Electoral Commission has a statutory duty to report on the Scottish parliamentary elections. Following a request by the Scottish Executive, it will also report on the local government elections in Scotland. The commission has appointed an international specialist in electoral administration, Mr. Ron Gould, to lead a review of the elections. It announced the broad scope of the review on 14 May and further details are being announced today. I have asked the commission to place details of the approach and the timetable in the Library of the House.
Answered by
Peter Viggers (Conservative)
Answering body
Speaker's Committee on the Electoral Commission
Type
Oral answers to questions
Date
21 May 2007
Reference
460 c973-4
House
House of Commons
What reviews the commission is undertaking of the recent elections to the Scottish Parliament.
Asked by
Andrew Rosindell (Conservative)
Answering body
Speaker's Committee on the Electoral Commission
Oral questions - Lead
Status
Answered
Date
21 May 2007
Reference
460 c973-4; 137948
House
House of Commons
If he will make a statement on the Electoral Commission's review of the Scottish parliamentary elections.
Asked by
Andrew MacKay (Conservative)
Answering body
Speaker's Committee on the Electoral Commission
Oral questions - Lead
Status
Answered
Date
21 May 2007
Reference
460 c973-4; 137946
House
House of Commons
I am most grateful to you, Mr. Speaker, for the opportunity to do so. I put it to my hon. Friend that even if the Electoral Commission does not have formal responsibility in this matter—which is a source of some surprise, and also disquiet, to me and a number of my hon. and right hon. Friends—it will have a view about the transparency and accountability of the democratic process. Is it not unsatisfactory that instead of the changes having been laid in a timeous fashion, they have not yet been laid at all and we have had too much procrastination and delay? Is it not a good thing that the Leader of the House is present in the Chamber so that he can at least witness our protests and seek to ensure that something is done to address them?
Asked by
John Bercow (Conservative)
Answering body
Speaker's Committee on the Electoral Commission
Oral questions - Supplementary
Status
Answered
Date
29 January 2007
Reference
456 c21
House
House of Commons
The Committee on Standards in Public Life made some robust comments about the timeliness of the reviews of the boundary commissions. I noted that the right hon. Gentleman the Leader of the House said that he thought that the Committee’s report should be debated by the House, and I am sure that that is one of the aspects of it to which Members will wish to give consideration.
Answered by
Peter Viggers (Conservative)
Answering body
Speaker's Committee on the Electoral Commission
Type
Oral answers to questions
Date
29 January 2007
Reference
456 c21
House
House of Commons
My hon. Friend is right that that is a matter for the Government, who made it clear when the provisions were enacted that they did not intend to take such steps before the current general reviews of all UK parliamentary constituencies had been concluded. My hon. Friend also rightly points out that the Committee on Standards in Public Life recommended in its recent report on the Electoral Commission that the provisions should be repealed, as part of a wider series of recommendations aimed at ensuring that the Electoral Commission no longer has any involvement in electoral boundary matters.
Answered by
Peter Viggers (Conservative)
Answering body
Speaker's Committee on the Electoral Commission
Type
Oral answers to questions
Date
29 January 2007
Reference
456 c20-1
House
House of Commons