Performance analysis 2019/20: Goal one

To enable the continued delivery of free and fair elections and referendums, focusing on the needs of electors and addressing the changing environment to ensure every vote remains secure and accessible.

This goal captures our role in overseeing the delivery of elections across all parts of the UK and focuses on three areas: delivering well-run electoral events, maximising and modernising electoral registration, and tackling electoral fraud.

Key achievements

To help deliver well-run electoral events, we:

  • supported the elections in May 2019: local government, local Mayoral and combined authority Mayoral elections across parts of England, Northern Ireland local government elections, and European Parliamentary elections
  • supported the UK Parliamentary general election in December 2019
  • worked with organisations supporting people with a disability to raise awareness of how to take part in elections and what support they can expect to receive
  • worked with the National Police Chiefs Council, CPS and the College of Policing to provide new guidance for candidates and campaigners on recognising and reporting intimidation
  • prepared for the scheduled, but then postponed, May 2020 elections: Mayor of London and London Assembly elections, local government elections, local Mayoral and combined authority Mayoral elections in parts of England, and Police and Crime Commissioner elections across England and Wales
  • published guidance and resources, and provided support to electoral administrators, candidates and agents for the scheduled elections in May 2020

To help maximise and modernise electoral registration, we:

  • supported the implementation of a reformed annual canvass in Great Britain, making better use of local and national data, including advising on proposals and producing new guidance for Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) and forms for the public
  • carried out a consultation on new performance standards for EROs
  • advised on proposals from the Northern Ireland Office and the Chief Electoral Officer for Northern Ireland to run their electoral registration canvass, now expected to take place in 2021

To help tackle electoral fraud, we:

  • worked with the police and local authorities to provide training and review integrity plans to help prevent electoral fraud
  • published data on alleged cases of electoral fraud reported during 2019
  • worked with partners to run campaigns to raise awareness of electoral fraud, timed with elections in May and December 2019

Performance measures

Measure Performance
We publish 100% of guidance products relating to electoral registration on time with no substantive errors

100%
Achieved
We provide accurate advice to Returning Officers (ROs) and EROs within three working days of receipt of the request. (Target 100%)

99.7%
Achieved
(Within tolerance)
Additions to electoral registers during our public awareness campaigns meet or exceed our targets (specific targets agreed ahead of each poll)

100%
Achieved
We review 100% of integrity plans from local authorities identified to be at a higher risk of fraud

100%
Achieved 
We publish 100% of our reports to planned deadlines

60%1
Achieved 
We comment on 100% of relevant legislation and policy proposals

100%
Achieved 

Delivering well-run electoral events

Since 2017, we have developed and continuously reviewed contingency plans so we would be ready to support elections called at short notice. We saw the benefits of this in 2019, when we worked quickly to support two UK-wide polls. Despite the tight timescales and pressures on those involved in running elections, our research shows voters thought all polls were well-run. We delivered public awareness campaigns ahead of each poll and provided guidance to electoral administrators, parties, candidates and campaigners, to help them fulfil their roles. In addition, we published financial information to help the public understand where parties got their money from and how they spent it.

Two recall petitions took place in 2019, which we supported by providing guidance to those campaigning and by observing the administration of the process. We then reported on how the petitions were run, identifying practical ways to improve these in the future.

Maximising and modernising electoral registration

We have done a lot of work to support annual canvass reforms in Great Britain. The new process will give EROs access to robust national-level data about the resident population, to identify addresses where there is likely to have been a change in the people who are eligible to register to vote. This will allow EROs to focus their resources in areas of greatest need. Our support for these reforms included commenting on proposals; providing advice on the legislation; writing guidance to help electoral administrators understand their new responsibilities; and producing new forms for the public. These forms include versions for Wales, Scotland and England to reflect different franchises for elections in each country. Our input helped to ensure the proposals would make it easier for electoral administrators to run the canvass and for the public to respond to it. We see these reforms as an important step towards improving our electoral registration system and look forward to seeing outcomes from their first implementation in 2020.

Our scrutiny of proposals from the Northern Ireland Office and Chief Electoral Officer for Northern Ireland to run a canvass of electors – originally planned for 2020 but now scheduled to take place in 2021 – ensured plans would be workable and help to improve registration levels in Northern Ireland. This work is important as our most recent research found that one in four eligible electors in Northern Ireland were not registered correctly at their current address.

Tackling electoral fraud

We provided guidance and advice to support EROs, ROs and the police to deal with electoral fraud. In 2019, for the third year in a row, we worked with the City of London Police Economic Fraud Academy to host and contribute content to three training courses for police. We also jointly hosted the 15th Annual National SPOC (Single Point Of Contact) seminar in Birmingham with the National Police Chiefs’ Council, supported SPOC seminars in Scotland and Wales, and provided dedicated election briefings for new SPOCs.

Throughout the year, police forces across the UK sent us data about allegations of electoral fraud that they received and investigated. Every year we report on the number, type, and outcome of these allegations, to understand what has happened and how cases are resolved.

For the early May and December polls in 2019, we worked in partnership with Crimestoppers and Cabinet Office to run our ‘your vote is yours alone’ campaign. This aims to help voters understand what constitutes electoral fraud and how to raise concerns. Our campaign contributed to more than 10,000 visits to the Crimestoppers website, where people could find out more information and report any concerns. Crimestoppers passed on 30 pieces of actionable information to the police.