Performance analysis 2019/20: Goal three

To be an independent and respected centre of expertise, using knowledge and insight to further the transparency, fairness and efficiency of our democratic system, and help adapt it to the modern, digital age.

This area of work focuses on innovation and strengthening our evidence base. Our expertise in policy, research and communications are core to enabling this work.

Key achievements

To contribute to innovation and strengthening our evidence base, we:

  • reported on the three sets of elections and two recall petitions from 2019 and made recommendations to help improve future events
  • reported on the accuracy and completeness of the electoral registers in the UK
  • evaluated the UK Government’s pilot schemes testing polling station voter ID in parts of England at the May 2019 local elections
  • provided the Scottish and Welsh governments and parliaments with independent expert advice on legislative and policy changes arising from their respective electoral reform agendas
  • assessed the impact on voters of any changes to the ordering of candidates on ballot papers for Scottish council elections, at the request of the Scottish Government
  • published feasibility studies on options for modernising electoral registration
  • provided oral evidence to three UK Parliament committees and written evidence to two House of Lords select committees
  • provided written evidence to three National Assembly for Wales committees and gave oral evidence on two occasions
  • provided written evidence on three bills to two Scottish Parliament committees and gave oral evidence on three occasions
     

Performance measures

Measures Performance

Delivering a project to understand the landscape of public democratic engagement in the UK 

 Achieved1

Deliver a project to develop and explore the feasibility of proposals to modernise electoral registration and meet voters’ needs and expectations in our digital society.

 Achieved

Publish our evaluation and response to the 2019 voter ID pilots

 Achieved

Work in support of the electoral law reform recommendations from the England and Wales, Scotland and the Northern Ireland Law Commissions

 Ongoing 

Innovation and strengthening our evidence base

We provided expert advice and support to the Scottish and Welsh governments and parliaments, to help with their electoral reform agendas. This included extending the franchise for their elections to younger people in Wales and new categories of electors in both countries. We advised on proposals and draft legislation and our input helped to ensure these would work in practice.

We evaluated the UK Government’s ID pilots, which took place during the local elections in parts of England in May 2019. Our independent assessment will help the UK Government to assess the accessibility and security of different approaches, before introducing any requirement to show ID in polling stations across Great Britain.

Our major studies into the accuracy and completeness of the electoral registers are the only UK studies on this topic. Many people use these findings and they provide evidence to inform the policy and legislative changes governments need to make to modernise our electoral registration systems. They are also a vital resource to inform our own and other organisations’ efforts to target public awareness work to increase voter registration. The latest study found that while the proportion of people registered to vote remains largely stable, young people and private renters are still less likely to be correctly registered, and overall levels of accuracy and completeness remain in need of further improvement.

We published feasibility studies that explore different ways public data could improve the registration system and how reforms to processes could work in practice. This gives governments a starting point to make the types of changes that would address pressures on electoral administrators’ resources as well as making it easier for individuals to register. We are using the outcomes from these studies to inform and encourage a wider policy debate about the future of electoral registration, and to support our own policy development work.

In Scotland, we carried out research to assess the impact on voters of any changes to the ordering of candidates on ballot papers for council elections. Our final report to the Scottish Government provides it with an evidence base to consider the impact of any changes on voters, electoral administrators and political parties.

We continued working to identify and make the case for ways to simplify, modernise and consolidate electoral law, including implementing the Law Commissions’ recommendations, made initially in their 2016 report and given final weight in their closing report this year. We gave evidence to parliamentary committees to ensure our expert analysis about elections and regulation would inform their work.

In the UK Parliament, this included the Digital, Culture, Sport and Media Committee inquiry on disinformation; the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee inquiry on electoral law; and the Exiting the European Union Committee on rules for any future citizens' assembly and referendum. We also gave evidence to the House of Lords select committees on Democracy and Digital Technologies and on the Electoral Registration and Administration Act 2013.

In the National Assembly for Wales, we gave evidence to the Equality, Local Government and Communities Committee on the Local Government and Elections (Wales) Bill, and to the Assembly Electoral Reform Committee’s inquiry into electoral systems and boundaries, and the Constitutional and Legislative Affairs Committee on the Senedd and Elections (Wales) Bill.

In the Scottish Parliament, we gave evidence to the Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee on the Scottish Elections (Franchise and Representation) Bill and the Scottish Elections (Reform) Bill. We also gave evidence to the Finance and Constitution Committee on the Referendums (Scotland) Bill.