Improving the health of the UK’s democratic process
Summary
While the UK’s electoral processes and political finance rules are robust and command high levels of public confidence, more can be done to modernise our system, increase transparency and broaden participation.
We have made a number of recommendations which if implemented could deliver significant benefits for voters, campaigners, electoral administrators, enforcement bodies and policy makers.
Priority recommendations
Improving access to electoral registration and voting
- Introducing more automated or automatic opportunities to register would help increase levels of both registration and opportunities for democratic participation. This could build on other, frequently used public service transactions such as applications for passports or changes to driving licence address details, or when new National Insurance numbers are issued to people turning 16.
- Giving Electoral Registration Officers access to data from a wide range of public service organisations, so that they can identify people who are not correctly registered, would also help reduce the challenge of processing large numbers of applications ahead of major electoral events.
- Requiring parties and campaigners to provide information for voters in a range of accessible formats at the same time as they publish their main policy or manifesto documents, and exempting costs that relate to additional support needs for disabled people standing for election from the candidate spending controls, would help to better meet the accessibility needs of voters and candidates.
Priority area: Protecting politics from foreign interference
Protecting politics from foreign interference
- Strengthening the law to prevent foreign money being unlawfully used in UK political campaigns, by making clear that parties and campaigners cannot accept donations from companies that have not made enough money in the UK to fund them, would give voters confidence in the integrity of political finance, but also protect political parties themselves.
- Introducing new requirements for parties and campaigners to carry out enhanced due diligence and risk assessments before they accept donations, adapted from existing anti-money laundering regulations, would help strengthen the controls that protect elections from unlawful influence and improve transparency for voters.
Priority area: Strengthening and simplifying political finance regulation
Strengthening and simplifying political finance regulation
- Decriminalising administrative offences relating to candidate spending controls, and moving enforcement of proportionate civil sanctions for these offences from the police to the Electoral Commission, would clarify political finance accountability and strengthen voters’ trust in the regulatory system.
- Giving the Commission the ability to obtain information outside a formal investigation would help support compliance and improve confidence in elections. This would include powers to access information from a wider range of organisations such as companies who supply services to campaigners.
- Increasing the maximum civil penalty for breaches of the law from the current £20,000 limit, following the example of the £500,000 limit for referendums in Scotland, would give greater flexibility to respond proportionately to the range of offences we regulate and incentivise campaigners to invest in robust compliance procedures.
Priority area: Modernising electoral law
Modernising electoral law
- Introducing an Electoral Law Bill to implement the widely supported recommendations of the law commissions to simplify and modernise electoral law would help governments and legislatures to deliver their policy priorities more easily. It would also help electoral administrators to provide the level of service that voters deserve.
Priority area: Maintaining the independence of the Electoral Commission
Maintaining the independence of the Electoral Commission
- Repealing sections 16 and 17 of the Elections Act 2022 to remove the requirement for a strategy and policy statement for the Commission would improve confidence and trust in our electoral system, by upholding the principle that an electoral commission remains independent from governments.