Annual Report and Accounts 2021/22

This year’s elections marked 12 months since I joined the Commission as Chair, and went out in my first week to visit polling stations and observe first-hand the hard work that everyone in the electoral community does to deliver elections across the UK. I saw for myself the huge efforts that went into delivering Covid-safe elections last year, and gained insight into the work of the Commission, and the people we work with and support.

Since that first week, I have continued to get out and meet members of the electoral community. I have heard from party treasurers and chairs, members of the UK’s governments and parliaments, Returning Officers and electoral administrators and many others engaged in making our democracy function well.

Emerging from these discussions are three key things people want to see from the Commission: high performance, cooperation and independence. We have been able to build these areas into our new five-year corporate plan, ensuring that our work over the next five years will meet the needs of all those we support.

High performance is, of course, critical if we want to continue to command trust and confidence. We have developed stretching targets and an ambitious set of performance indicators to ensure, not only that the Commission delivers to a high standard, but that the wider system meets the needs of voters and everyone else involved in elections. We will measure public satisfaction with voting and voter registration, the timeliness of our enforcement work and the provision of guidance, and public perceptions of fraud and abuse.

To achieve our targets, we need to work closely with other organisations, including local authorities, the police, parties and campaigners. We have a programme of support for electoral administrators and local authorities to assist them to deliver effective, resilient and consistent local electoral services. We also have a new support strategy for our regulated community to help parties and campaigners comply with electoral law and to ensure voters have transparency over the money given to and spent by these groups.

As ever, the Commission’s independence underpins this work. It is essential that we remain independent and free to take impartial decisions, informed by evidence. We will carefully consider the implications of the UK Government’s Strategy and Policy Statement, due to be published later this year, and share our views via the scheduled consultation.

Performance, cooperation and independence will be particularly important as the Commission implements the UK Government’s Elections Act and the electoral agendas for Scotland and Wales over the coming years. Alongside the electoral community, we will be working to deliver significant changes for voters, administrators and campaigners. We will continue to advise on timeframes, resources and impact to ensure the changes can be delivered as intended.

Delivering the corporate plan and implementing the Elections Act will require a resilient and skilled team. I have been pleased to welcome to the Commission Shaun McNally CBE, our new Chief Executive, who together with our Senior Leadership Team is already making great progress on this work. I would also like to take this opportunity to pay tribute to Bob Posner, our retiring Chief Executive, who has been a calm, approachable and supportive leader over many years of service to the Commission.

John Pullinger CB, Chair

Having recently joined the Commission as Chief Executive, I have been pleased to see the excellent work the Commission has undertaken to promote public confidence in the democratic process and ensure its integrity. This annual report sets out in detail the organisation’s progress against its four strategic objectives, but there are a number of achievements worth highlighting.

May 2021 saw a particularly complex set of polls take place across Great Britain, including elections to the Scottish Parliament, Senedd and London Assembly, with some contests postponed from May 2020. The additional challenge of the coronavirus pandemic brought uncertainty and changes for voters, campaigners and administrators who were required to observe public health guidance while participating. 

Commission colleagues worked with public health bodies and the electoral community to support all those involved, providing detailed guidance to campaigners and administrators and running public awareness campaigns to help voters understand their voting options. 

I was pleased to see that more than a million people registered to vote during the period of the Commission’s voter registration campaign, ‘Got 5?’, and our research found that there was no decline in turnout, despite the pandemic. Changes put in place by the UK’s governments, the Commission and electoral administrators helped support and reassure voters and campaigners. People were confident that they could vote safely at the elections, the overwhelming majority were able to vote using their preferred method, and overall, candidates and campaigners were able to put their case to voters face-to-face, online and through printed material. 

Shortly before the polls, Commission research found that public confidence in the running of elections hit a ten-year high. Eighty per cent of respondents said they were confident that elections in the UK are well run, and 86% were satisfied with the process of voting and registering to vote. This is a great outcome and something we must continue to build on.

As well as overseeing elections, the Commission is also responsible for overseeing compliance and promoting a good understanding of the rules among the regulated community. Last year, colleagues carried out research with our regulated community to understand the challenges they face, and the kind of support and assistance they want from us in the future. We want to work with campaigners to deliver more proactive support and engagement, helping them to get ahead of any potential compliance issues. We have set up a new team dedicated to developing, testing and implementing a selection of new support tools. 

The team contacted a wide range of organisations and individuals from across the regulated community, including political parties large and small, non-party campaigners, and elected representatives. We heard back from nearly 350 people from across the UK who have provided us with information that will help us design a regulatory support strategy around their needs. This will help ensure we continue to enjoy high levels of compliance, which further supports voter confidence in our electoral system.

Another key focus for the Commission over the last year has been the UK Government’s Elections Act, the most significant piece of electoral legislation in nearly 20 years. The Commission spent much of the last year providing independent, evidence-based advice to parliamentarians to support their consideration of the Bill’s measures.

Having now received Royal Assent, the Elections Act brings considerable changes for those delivering, participating and campaigning in elections in the UK. Our focus and that of our partners now turns to implementation, and ensuring all those involved in our democratic processes have time to understand and prepare for the new measures. Work on this has already begun and will be a significant priority for the years ahead. Plans are underway for a public awareness campaign to support new voter ID requirements, and our teams are looking carefully at how we can reflect the new legislation in our guidance.

Finally, the last year has seen important changes to the Commission’s funding and accountability arrangements. The Scottish Parliament and Senedd now fund the direct costs of delivering Commission functions. These arrangements have now been in place for a full year, bringing increased accountability and transparency for the Commission. You will notice these arrangements reflected throughout this document, both in the Commission’s accounts and in the two devolved sections of the report.

The work of the last year puts us in a strong position for the year to come. We have a new Corporate Plan, which sets ambitious objectives for the next five-year period. It will drive our work with the wider electoral community, with voters, campaigners, administrators, partners and the UK’s governments to strengthen further trust in the electoral system. It will also drive collaboration and improvement within the Commission. In order to support our stakeholders, we need to support our staff. We will refresh our learning and development offering and invest in technology to ensure everyone has the skills, tools and support they need to deliver.

Internal innovation will equip us to keep pace with external innovation. With new electoral legislation from the UK Government and ambitious reform agendas in both Scotland and Wales, there is a lot of change on the horizon. We are well placed to support the electoral community through these changes, and to make the case for any further reforms our system might need to ensure voters and campaigners can continue to participate with confidence.

Shaun McNally CBE, Chief Executive and Accounting Officer