2024 Electoral fraud data
Overview
The UK has low levels of proven electoral fraud. There is no evidence of large-scale electoral fraud in 2024. Most cases of alleged electoral fraud (94%) resulted in the police taking no further action or were locally resolved through words of advice to those involved.
2024 elections
In May 2024, elections took place in England and Wales for:
- Police and Crime Commissioners (England and Wales)
- Local councils (England)
- Local mayors (England)
- Combined Authority mayors (England)
- Mayor of London
- Greater London Assembly (GLA)
In July 2024, a UK Parliamentary General Election was held with all 650 seats in the House of Commons up for election.
There were also four UK parliamentary by-elections during 2024.
A total of 445 cases of alleged electoral fraud were investigated by the police during 2024. Police issued one caution in relation to a case of alleged electoral fraud in 2024.
This table shows the number of cases of alleged fraud reported to us by the police for elections held in 2024.
| Election | Number of cases |
|---|---|
| UK Parliamentary General Election | 236 |
| Local election | 137 |
| Non-election specific | 19 |
| Local by-election | 15 |
| PCC election | 13 |
| Mayor of London election | 8 |
| GLA election | 6 |
| Local Mayoral election | 5 |
| Combined Authority Mayoral election | 3 |
| London Boroughs | 1 |
| UK Parliamentary by-election | 1 |
| Local referendum | 1 |
Number of cases of alleged electoral fraud in 2024 by election type
Outcomes of all reported cases
Around two thirds of cases (65%) resulted in the police taking no further action. This means that the cases were not investigated further by the police because there was no evidence, there wasn’t enough evidence, an offence wasn’t found, or it wasn’t in the public interest to proceed.
This table and chart show the number and outcome of the cases that were reported to the police in 2024.
| Outcome | Number of cases | Percentage of total |
|---|---|---|
| No further action | 287 | 65% |
| Locally resolved* | 131 | 29% |
| Under investigation | 14 | 3% |
| Other | 8 | 2% |
| Prosecution advice awaited | 4 | 1% |
| Caution | 1 | Less than 1% |
*Locally resolved means that the police gave words of advice to the suspect about complying with the law.
Where cases are listed as ‘other’, the alleged conduct was not an electoral offence. But it concerned aspects of voting or campaigning, and so the police gave advice to the people complaints were made about.
Outcome of all reported cases
Summary spreadsheet
Cases where the suspect accepted a police caution
Local Mayoral election
The suspect in this case was investigated for using false information when registering to vote. The person attempted to register to vote under the name of a recently deceased person. The Metropolitan Police spoke to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) for advice and guidance, and were advised that a caution be issued in this matter.
Types of electoral fraud allegations
About two thirds of all allegations reported in 2024 (64%) were related to campaigning offences. Most of these were about:
- Campaigners not including details about the printer, promoter or publisher on printed or electronic election material – an ‘imprint’ (40%).
- Someone making false statements about the personal character or conduct of a candidate (20%).
This table and chart show the number of cases and types of offences that were investigated in 2024.
| Offence type | Number of cases | Percentage of total |
|---|---|---|
| Campaigning | 284 | 64% |
| Voting | 84 | 19% |
| Registration | 46 | 10% |
| Nomination | 27 | 6% |
| Other | 4 | 1% |
Types of electoral fraud allegations
Personation
A total of 17 cases of alleged personation fraud were recorded by police forces in 2024.
The offence of personation involves someone pretending to be someone else so they can use that person’s vote. This can happen at a polling station, with a postal vote, or a proxy vote (where a voter has appointed someone else to cast their vote for them).
Just over half of those cases (9) involved allegations of personation of postal votes. All those cases resulted in the police taking no further action because there was no evidence or insufficient evidence, or they were locally resolved. One case is pending prosecution advice.
This table shows the number of personation allegations and their outcomes.
| Personation type | Number of allegations | Outcome type and number |
|---|---|---|
| Postal | 9 | No further action: 6 Locally resolved: 2 Prosecution advice awaited: 1 |
| Polling station | 7 | No further action: 6 Locally resolved: 1 |
| Proxy | 1 | Locally resolved: 1 |
Election petitions
An election petition is a legal challenge to the result of an election.
There were no petitions following elections held in 2024.