Parliamentary Parties Panel minutes: 7 February 2023

AM noted some changes made at SM’s request. The minutes were approved as corrected. 

LE said that she had spoken to Nick Adams, the NPCC’s new elections lead, and has requested a meeting, where she will raise the parties’ request to meet him.

LE confirmed that the Commission’s regulatory support team is working on proposals to increase the priority of leaders’ tour queries.

AI said that forms for Voter Authority Certificate applications were shared with the parties when applications opened on 16 Jan.

LE highlighted information about the Commission’s voter ID public awareness work in the update report and on its website. AM recommended that the Commission highlight to parliamentarians that voter ID was not in force for elections before May. LE said that this will be considered at any upcoming meetings.

AM said that new nominations papers are now available and noted that the Commission’s guidance was working effectively in setting out the changes introduced by the Elections Act.

LE confirmed that parties’ feedback had been added to the PEF Online replacement system project manager’s action list.

BC gave an update on implementation of the Voter Authority Certificate. The service went live on 16 January, with no service disruptions. There have now been 14,500 applications. She noted feedback from administrators on the quality of photos submitted with applications. She said that although the system has plenty of capacity, early applications would be welcome to avoid a spike close to the application deadline. She noted planning is now underway by local election teams for polling stations and welcomed the imminent publication of the Commission’s polling station handbook.

BC said that work was gearing up on the next tranche of measures due to take effect after May’s polls, and offered to provide an update on online absent voting applications, overseas voters, and changes to postal and proxy voting requirements at the next meeting.

JH said that the remaining campaign-related measures would be commenced in Autumn, including imprints, changes to spending controls and measures on intimidation. He said that DLUHC was working with the Commission on statutory guidance on imprints and the Code of Practice for campaigners, which is likely to come in earlier than the other measures.

Noting the Scottish Government’s consultation covering agents being permitted to use a PO box as their address, KB highlighted that there was conflicting guidance at present: currently agents can use a PO box for imprints but not on nomination papers.

AM asked the Commission to share the polling station handbook with parties. AI confirmed this would be shared when published on 8 Feb.

KB raised the impact of postal strikes on postal vote turnout, citing a 5% fall in turnout compared to non-strike periods. AM asked whether the Commission could add a prompt for administrators to take account of postal strikes when sending out ballots and contact Royal Mail locally to emphasise the importance of postal ballots.

AI said that the Commission’s regional teams were already speaking to local authorities with by-elections about this issue, and considering any other actions that could be taken. PD said that DLUHC were discussing this issue with Royal Mail.

AM welcomed the publication of guidance highlighting changes introduced by the Elections Act. LE said that the Commission was planning to build some consultation into the process for publication of guidance next year, and would welcome any lessons learned. 

AM raised the difference between guidance published as HTML and as a PDF, asking whether PDFs could be linked. LE said that the HTML guidance can be downloaded as a PDF, though the PDF would not automatically update as the guidance on the website was updated. She explained that the move to publishing guidance in HTML format aims to make it more accessible, in line with recent regulations on the accessibility of public websites. She also noted practical reasons for the move, as PDFs are not user-friendly on phone screens, can be difficult to navigate, and limit accessibility to people with vision impairments. She said that although some older PDFs remain and some forms would not change format, more guidance would be made available as HTML at each election. 

SM said that some PDFs appear in different versions, and asked whether PDFs generated from HTMLs would have accessibility features. LE said that the website was still relatively new and that the Commission would update any broken links identified.

AM asked for details of how many people download guidance as PDFs, as it is possible that some people may find HTML more difficult. LE said that she would look into stats on this.

AM said that parties were working through Q4 reports, including aggregation of donations. He noted that parties were surprised by the guidance on aggregation, as they were previously operating with more transparency than is demanded in the guidance. He asked whether the Commission could make clear that over-reporting would not be penalised. 

JB asked about aggregation of donations for a central office. If a central party received multiple donations from the same donor, some of which breach the reporting threshold and some don’t, the law says only to report the ones above the threshold, which he noted appears less transparent.

AM said that KB had raised an issue about cut-off dates raised by recent enforcement by the Commission. He noted that for enforcement going back some years, it was difficult to identify who was responsible, or whether they were still a member of the party. LE said that she will take these points away. She said that guidance on aggregation reflected the law, but that the Commission was looking at aggregation for accounting units and would report at a future PPP.