2023 Electoral fraud data

In May 2023, elections took place in England and Northern Ireland for:

• Local councils (England and Northern Ireland)
• Local mayors (England only)
• There were also 7 UK parliamentary by-elections during 2023.

A total of 342 cases of alleged electoral fraud were investigated by the police during 2023. One case of electoral fraud resulted in a conviction in 2023.

This table shows the number of cases of alleged fraud reported to us by the police for elections held in 2023. 

An independent candidate at the local elections in 2023 submitted a nomination paper declaring that he was not disqualified from standing at the election. However, he had been disqualified from his position as a Councillor in August 2021 when he received a custodial sentence suspended for two years, resulting in a by-election taking place. The Electoral Services Team at the council had queried this with him but he still submitted his nomination papers.  

Northumbria Police arrested him on 27 April 2023. During the interview, he admitted making a false statement on his nomination form. He offered as a defence his belief that the council would exercise discretion. He was charged with the offence.

He was summoned to attend court on 4 August 2023 but failed to appear. He was arrested on 5 August for this failure and held in custody for two days. He was granted conditional bail to attend court on 11 August 2023. He chose to stand trial at the Crown Court which was set for 23 November 2023. On the day of the trial, he pleaded. He was sentenced to a total of 10 months imprisonment:

• 4 months for the offence of making a false statement on a nomination form
• 6 months for the suspended sentence he had received in 2021

Around two thirds of cases (57%) resulted in the police taking no further action. This means that the police did not investigate the cases further because there was no evidence, there wasn’t enough evidence, it wasn’t in the public interest to proceed, or an offence was not found.

This table and chart show the number and outcome of the cases that were reported to the police in 2023.

*Locally resolved means that the police gave words of advice to the suspect about complying with the law.

Almost two third thirds of cases (71%) reported in 2023 were related to campaigning offences. Most of these were about:

• Campaigners not including details about the printer, promoter or publisher on election material - an ‘imprint’ (40%).
• Someone making false statements about the personal character or conduct of a candidate (29%).

This table and chart show the number of cases and types of offences that were investigated in 2023.

A total of 9 cases of alleged personation fraud were recorded by police forces in 2023.  

The offence of personation involves someone pretending to be someone else so they can use that person’s vote. This can happen at a polling station, with a postal vote, or a proxy vote (where a voter has appointed someone else to cast their vote for them).

Two of those cases involved allegations of personation in polling stations. Both of those cases resulted in the police taking no further action following investigation because they found that no offence had been committed.

This table shows the number of personation allegations and their outcomes.

An election petition is a legal challenge to the result of an election. There was only one election petition following the May 2023 elections. It involved an electoral administration error rather than an allegation of electoral fraud. The petition was successful.