Local Government: Elections

Cabinet Office written question – answered at on 22 May 2018.

Alert me about debates like this

Photo of Lord Rennard Lord Rennard Liberal Democrat

To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they plan to provide funding for, and ask the Electoral Commission to undertake, a representative survey of people taken from the marked registers showing that a vote had been cast in their name at a polling station in the 2018 local elections so as to obtain an indication as to how many of them did not vote, but had a vote claimed by another person who attended the polling station.

Photo of Lord Rennard Lord Rennard Liberal Democrat

To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they plan to provide funding for, and ask the Electoral Commission to undertake, a representative survey of people who voted by post in the 2018 local elections so as to obtain an indication as to how many of them may not have cast the vote themselves, or without proper conditions of privacy in keeping with the spirit of the Ballot Act 1872.

Photo of Lord Young of Cookham Lord Young of Cookham Lord in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip), Lords Spokesperson (Cabinet Office)

The Government believes that electoral fraud is unacceptable on any level and is taking steps to ensure our elections are even more secure. At the 2018 local elections a number of local authorities volunteered to conduct Voter ID pilots to ensure that voters provided a form of identification before voting.

The Electoral Commission will produce its own reports on the 2018 polls and will collate information on allegations of electoral fraud. The Government has no plans to ask the Electoral Commission to conduct an additional survey.

Three further areas, Tower Hamlets Peterborough Slough undertook postal vote pilots looking at the security of postal votes. The Cabinet Office and Electoral Commission will undertake detailed evaluation of the pilots.

Does this answer the above question?

Yes0 people think so

No0 people think not

Would you like to ask a question like this yourself? Use our Freedom of Information site.

Cabinet

The cabinet is the group of twenty or so (and no more than 22) senior government ministers who are responsible for running the departments of state and deciding government policy.

It is chaired by the prime minister.

The cabinet is bound by collective responsibility, which means that all its members must abide by and defend the decisions it takes, despite any private doubts that they might have.

Cabinet ministers are appointed by the prime minister and chosen from MPs or peers of the governing party.

However, during periods of national emergency, or when no single party gains a large enough majority to govern alone, coalition governments have been formed with cabinets containing members from more than one political party.

War cabinets have sometimes been formed with a much smaller membership than the full cabinet.

From time to time the prime minister will reorganise the cabinet in order to bring in new members, or to move existing members around. This reorganisation is known as a cabinet re-shuffle.

The cabinet normally meets once a week in the cabinet room at Downing Street.