Mr Clive Betts (Sheffield South East) (Lab) (Urgent Question) To
ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and
Communities if he will make a statement on arrangements in place to
record the number of voters who attend at a polling station and are
denied a vote because they are not in possession of valid ID. The
Minister of State, Department for Levelling Up, Housing and
Communities (Rachel Maclean) It is vital that we keep our democracy
secure. This Government...Request free
trial
(Sheffield South East) (Lab)
(Urgent Question)
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and
Communities if he will make a statement on arrangements in place
to record the number of voters who attend at a polling station
and are denied a vote because they are not in possession of valid
ID.
The Minister of State, Department for Levelling Up, Housing and
Communities ()
It is vital that we keep our democracy secure. This Government
stood on a manifesto commitment not only to protect the integrity
of our elections but to enhance it. On that basis, this
Government won a majority. We have introduced legislation to
implement that commitment and we are now in the process of
delivering on our promise. Voter identification is central to
protecting our electoral system from the potential for voting
fraud. Its implementation at the local elections next week brings
the rest of the UK in line with Northern Ireland, where people
have had to bring photographic ID to vote in elections since
2003. [Interruption.] I remind the hon. Member for Cardiff West
(), who is chuntering from a
sedentary position, that that legislation was introduced by the
then Labour Government under direct rule.
The data collection processes for polling stations are set out
clearly in the Elections Act 2022 and the Voter Identification
Regulations 2022. Polling station staff will record details of
any electors turned away—should there be any—for the purposes of
complaints or legal challenges and, in the short term, to provide
data to evaluate the policy, which will be conducted by the
Government and the Electoral Commission in line with the
legislation that was voted on, debated and passed by this
House.
The Electoral Commission has published suggested templates of the
necessary forms and has updated its guidance in the polling
station handbook to reflect the new processes. As required by
legislation, the Government will publish a number of reports on
the impact of the voter identification policy. Our intention is
that the first of those reports will be published no later than
November 2023. The data collected will be a significant part of
that evaluation.
There are few tasks more important in public life, as I am sure
every member of a political party represented in this House and
the general public would agree, than maintaining the British
public’s trust in the sanctity of the ballot box in our
democratic processes. We on the Government Benches take that duty
very seriously. I look forward to our first experience of the
policy in polling stations in Great Britain on 4 May.
Mr Betts
I was not my intention to get into an argument about the
appropriateness of the policy. I was trying to recognise that it
will be important to know the impact of the voter ID regulations
once the elections have taken place. When people go to polling
stations and are turned away because do not have the requisite
ID, will those numbers be recorded? We know that if someone
speaks to a polling clerk and is turned away, the total number of
those people—not their names—will be recorded. But because of
concerns about the collection of people around polling stations,
some authorities will have meeters and greeters outside who will
check in advance, perhaps when people are in a queue, whether
they have the required ID. We do not know whether people who are
turned away at that point will have their numbers recorded—that
is the confusion.
At a recent Levelling Up, Housing and Communities Committee
hearing, Peter Stanyon, the chief executive of Association of
Electoral Administrators, made this important point:
“The returning officers are required where they have a
meeter-greeter to report those they have advised at the door and
turned away, and those at the desk as well. They will be reported
as two separate things…The base standard is it is at the desk,
because that is where the ballot papers will be and that is where
the question is asked. Where there is a meeter-greeter, the
commission is asking for that statistic and the Government are
asking for that statistic as well.”
So two sets of statistics will be collected. That seems fairly
clear.
The problem is that this week the Electoral Commission said
something very different. It said that when meeter-greeters turn
someone away who does not have the voter ID that they should
have, those numbers will not be counted. I have a simple question
for the Minister: is it the Government’s intention that that
information will be collected, so the total number of people who
attend a polling station but are denied a vote because they do
not have the requisite ID will be counted?
Was the statement made by Peter Stanyon to the Levelling Up,
Housing and Communities Committee correct? If it was correct, why
did the Electoral Commission issue different advice this week?
Was that information incorrect? Or, if it was correct, was the
information provided by the Electoral Commission this week given
with the consent and approval of the Government? If it was, and
meeter-greeters are going to turn people away and the numbers are
not going to be collected, how can it be said that it is the
Government’s intention to collect information that includes the
number of people who are turned away? Surely both elements have
to be added together in order to get the total numbers correct
and to properly assess the impact of the measure.
I thank the hon. Gentleman for his forensic scrutiny, as we would
expect from the Chair of the Levelling Up, Housing and
Communities Committee. I will make a couple of basic points, but
it may be appropriate for me to follow up in writing, because he
is referring to some conversations—[Interruption.] I would be
grateful if the hon. Member for Nottingham North () would stop chuntering so I
can answer the question appropriately, because the hon. Member
for Sheffield South East (Mr Betts) has requested a considerable
amount of detail, which I am attempting to give.
Mr Speaker
Order. I will make that decision; that is why I went shush. Carry
on, Minister.
Thank you, Mr Speaker.
I will make a couple of points. First, the hon. Gentleman asked
whether the Electoral Commission has been directed by the
Government. That is not the case. As he will know, the Electoral
Commission is a completely independent body. I was just present
in the Chamber to listen to one of the hon. Gentleman’s
colleagues, the hon. Member for Lancaster and Fleetwood (), answering questions on behalf of the Electoral
Commission. The Electoral Commission is subject to scrutiny and
plays a vital role in these processes.
For the avoidance of doubt, I remind the House that we are very
concerned to get the process of data collection correct. As set
out in the voter identification regulations, data collection will
take place in polling stations via two forms: the ballot paper
refusal list and the voter identification evaluation form. The
first records data in case of a later complaint or legal
challenge. The latter records data for the purpose of evaluation
of the policy. As has been discussed many times in the House,
Cabinet Office research in 2021 showed that 98% of electors
already have one of the accepted forms of photographic
identification. An expired identification is also to be accepted
if the photo remains a good likeness.
Mr Speaker
I call the Father of the House.
(Worthing West) (Con)
Following the remarks made by the hon. Member for Sheffield South
East (Mr Betts), the key points are, first, whether people know
they need voter ID, and I hope these questions and answers will
help to encourage that; secondly, they need to take that ID; and
thirdly, that if they go to a polling station without it, they
can go home and get it. Will the Electoral Commission be able to
tell how many people who were initially unable to vote were able
to come back and vote?
Finally, did the Electoral Commission recommend voter ID in
England in 2015? And am I right in thinking that it is not only
in Northern Ireland that voters require ID, but in the Republic
of Ireland as well?
I thank the Father of the House for his comments. He is right in
saying that voter ID is required not only in Northern
Ireland—introduced by a Labour Government—but in the Republic of
Ireland, along with many other European countries and Canada.
This country is currently an outlier, and many experts have made
that point.
My hon. Friend mentioned the arrangements at polling stations. We
all play an important part in raising awareness. All of us who
have local elections coming up have certainly been playing our
part in reminding voters that ID is essential. There is a free
form for which people can apply, as well as the 20 other forms of
ID that are acceptable at polling stations. Local authorities
have been given additional funds to raise awareness, working with
all communities to ensure that voter engagement is as high as it
possibly can be.
Mr Speaker
I call the shadow Minister.
(Nottingham North)
(Lab/Co-op)
Colleagues will have been dismayed to learn that fewer than
90,000 of the up to 2 million people without appropriate ID have
applied for a voter authority certificate. Voter ID has always
been a solution in search of a problem. Millions of pounds have
been squandered on this process, and we now find that hundreds of
thousands of people have had their votes taken off them. The
Minister talks of experts, but all the experts—the Electoral
Commission, the Association of Electoral Administrators, the
Local Government Association—begged the Government not to
introduce voter ID for the May elections because there was not
enough time. Ministers did not listen, and this is the
consequence. The sole accountability is theirs. We wait to be
shown the scale of this travesty; that is rightly a role for the
independent review, but the review will work only if it has the
correct data.
Last month, during oral questions, I raised the point that many
returning officers intended to use greeters outside polling
stations to turn away those without ID, and that those turned
away would not count as having been denied votes. That is deeply
wrong, and not acceptable. The Minister did not address this
point in responding to my hon. Friend the Member for Sheffield
South East (Mr Betts), so let me press her again. Whose advice is
right? Will people who are turned away by someone outside a
polling station who asked whether they had appropriate ID count
as people who have been denied a vote, or will they not?
I find it interesting that the hon. Gentleman has sought to
rehash arguments that we have already had numerous times in this
place, and I find it surprising that his party is not committed
to protecting the sanctity of the ballot box. The reason we have
had to introduce this legislation is the absolute fiasco that we
have seen unfolding in Tower Hamlets and Birmingham over the
years. We need to protect the sanctity of the ballot box, and
that is what we are doing. We are introducing a number of
measures to collect the data that will enable us to conduct the
detailed analysis that is required by the legislation and by the
electorate, and that is the right way of doing things.
May I ask why, if the Labour party is so opposed to voter ID, it
requires ID for all its candidate selection meetings? Why have
Labour Members stated time and again that they know full well
that most people in this country have a valid form of ID? What is
good enough for candidate selection in the Labour party should be
good enough for our local elections.
(Haltemprice and Howden)
(Con)
I must tell the Minister that I am very uncomfortable with this
policy. She is right to say that Tower Hamlets and other parts of
the country are having problems, but they are principally about
postal votes rather than personation. We have had one conviction
in a decade in this context. The Electoral Commission said that
the pilot was not big enough for conclusions to be drawn,
although there was a reduction of up to 6% in turnout. In
Northern Ireland, which the Minister cited, there was, according
to the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs
Committee, a 2.3% reduction. I am afraid the hon. Member for
Sheffield South East (Mr Betts) had a valid point. Will the
Minister please write to everyone, not just the hon. Gentleman,
giving proper answers to his questions?
Pilots have been conducted on a number of occasions in, I think,
Woking and Pendle. A thorough study was carried out, and we found
no evidence of turnout being lowered. We also observed very high
engagement with the new processes. The forms of ID that were
available were very clearly communicated to people. What is more,
this policy intervention has served the purpose of raising public
confidence in the sanctity of the electoral process, and I think
we should all welcome that.
Mr Speaker
I call the SNP spokesperson.
(Aberdeen North) (SNP)
I am sure the Minister did not intend to give inaccurate
information when she said that all Conservative candidates and
campaigns have been giving out correct information. A leaflet
went out in Norfolk saying that people do not need photographic
ID, so they clearly failed to pass on the correct information
there.
We in the SNP have consistently raised our opposition to voter
ID, because it disproportionately disenfranchises vulnerable and
under-represented groups such as disabled people, young people,
trans and non-binary people, and those from ethnic minority
backgrounds. Given that local councils, this place and
politicians at all levels are disproportionately white,
non-disabled, older and non-trans, what assessment have the
Government made of the impact that requiring voter ID will have
on the representativeness of democracy in these isles?
I thank the hon. Lady for her question. I would reflect that she
and her party are extremely keen to rejoin the European Union and
that very similar electoral systems operate in many EU countries,
and in many other advanced western democracies. That is what we
are seeking to introduce in this country.
Of course, the hon. Lady is right to highlight the need to make
sure that various groups of society are not disenfranchised.
Research has demonstrated that 99% of black and ethnic minority
communities already possess a form of voter ID that is perfectly
appropriate for voting. It is also the case that some ethnic
communities are more disadvantaged by abuses at the ballot box,
which is why we will always fight for all people in our United
Kingdom to have trust and confidence in the sanctity of our
electoral processes.
(New Forest West) (Con)
Mask wearers are to be required to remove their mask. Will the
Government issue reassuring advice, drawing attention to the
WhatsApp messages of the right hon. Member for West Suffolk
() revealing that masks do not
work, have no evidential base and were introduced only as a means
of keeping up with the ultras in Scotland?
I am satisfied that the Government are introducing all relevant
public health advice, including to people who are clinically
vulnerable. The hon. Member for Lancaster and Fleetwood () set out in detail some of the measures that will be
taken in local authority polling stations.
(Blaenau Gwent) (Lab)
For this set of elections, bearing in mind they are taking place
only in England, the Electoral Commission tells me that 250,000
to 350,000 people should have applied for a voter ID certificate.
At the deadline, just 85,000 had been issued, despite the
estimated £4 million advertising spend. Given that less than a
third of voters requiring voter ID applied for this certificate,
does the Minister accept that voter suppression has already
occurred?
No, I strongly reject that. I can see where this debate is going.
Opposition Members are making shrill, hyperbolic and misguided
claims that this is somehow voter suppression. I find that quite
extraordinary, given that the hon. Gentleman’s constituency
Labour party requires and expects its members to turn up with
photographic ID when selecting candidates.
Mr (Old Bexley and Sidcup)
(Con)
Does my hon. Friend agree that this is typical flip-flopping from
Labour Members, who are now campaigning to repeal laws that they
introduced in Northern Ireland in 2003?
I thank my hon. Friend for his question. When Labour Ministers
introduced voter ID in Northern Ireland, they set out in great
detail why the legislation was necessary. Why is it good enough
for one valued part of our United Kingdom but not good enough for
the electors of Great Britain?
(North Shropshire) (LD)
As the Local Government Association indicated earlier this month,
and as the hon. Member for Lancaster and Fleetwood () has reiterated, there are significant practical
problems for polling clerks. Meanwhile, the chief executive of
the Association of Electoral Administrators has said that
discussions are taking place with the police for extra resources
on polling day. With a week to go, can the Minister confirm
whether enough polling clerks have been recruited and whether
additional police resources have been secured to support the
additional burden next Thursday? What strain will this place on
police services?
The hon. Lady is right to highlight all the practical work that
is going on, and I want to thank local authorities very much for
the way they have delivered those additional measures that are
going to be needed, backed by £4.75 million of central Government
funding through the new burdens process. Of course, the
Government will take very seriously all the lessons learned about
this exercise, but I return once more to the point: when this
process was introduced in Northern Ireland, under a Labour
Government, none of the issues that are being raised regularly by
Opposition Members were found to have turned out in practice to
be the case.
(North Devon) (Con)
Some elderly constituents have contacted me to say that they know
they need voter ID next week and they look forward to their trip
to the polling station. Will my hon. Friend confirm what types of
voter ID will be acceptable on the day?
I thank my hon. Friend for the question and encourage all of her
constituents, from whatever age group, to go to the polling
station. There is a long list of valid forms of photo ID, and we
know that 98% of the population hold one of them. I have the list
here and it is available on gov.uk. I will not detain the House
by reading them all out, but they include: driving licence;
passport; blue badge; PASS—national Proof of Age Standards
Scheme—card; the Young Scot card; the Post Office card; and of
course the free voter authority certificate.
(Cardiff West) (Lab)
Let us get back to what is really going on here this morning. One
week before these important elections, this Minister has turned
up in the House of Commons to answer an urgent question to which
she does not know the answer and has offered to write to Members
of Parliament. That is utterly unacceptable. Will she return to
the House later today, having asked Mr Speaker, to make a
statement to this House and turn up with the information that she
should have had when she got here, so that she can answer the
question to which the House wants the answer?
I firmly rebut that. I have made multiple comments answering the
questions that Members have put to me. I also firmly rebut the
accusations from Opposition Members suggesting that something is
going on here other than protecting our electoral system in this
great democracy, in which we are all proud to serve.
[Interruption.]
(Hemsworth) (Lab)
Let us try to calm things down. In my hand, I have a senior
railcard, which allows me to enter a polling station and vote. A
young person’s railcard, which is almost identical and carries a
photograph, will not give them permission to vote. The Minister
will be aware of allegations of vote rigging by this Government
against younger people. What does she have against younger
people? When a note is taken of who is turned away because they
do not have identification, will the person’s demographic
characteristics be identified so that we can see whether or not
the vote rigging against young people and other groups that has
been alleged has taken place?
There is no vote rigging going on here. Under the process that
has been set out through regulations, when people who are turned
away later return to the polling station with accepted ID, which
includes many forms of ID that young people are accustomed to
carrying because they need to prove their ID on many occasions,
such as when going into pubs and clubs and having an alcoholic
drink, legally that can be recorded only by a poll clerk or a
presiding officer at the issuing desk. If they go into the
polling station, the data would be recorded at that point.
(Inverclyde) (SNP)
Let me ask a question that was asked earlier. I have grave issues
with voter ID, but the Government are going to go ahead in any
case, so let me ask a very straightforward question. The people
who will be monitoring will perhaps have to turn somebody away,
because they have turned up with proof of ID that has an old
photograph—the person will think it is representative of them,
but it is no longer representative because it is out of date,
although apparently still a valid proof of ID. What training will
people have had to be able to say to somebody, “You do not have
the right to vote here today”?
There has been extensive work and engagement with local
authorities by the Electoral Commission, the Government and
others to make sure that all possible scenarios and processes are
followed properly to protect the sanctity of our electoral
system.
(Slough) (Lab)
At a time when the majority of people are already not exercising
their democratic right to vote in local council elections, this
Conservative Government have introduced new voter ID regulations
that will remove the right to vote unobstructed for millions of
Brits. The Minister is unable to answer the urgent question from
my hon. Friend the Member for Sheffield South East (Mr Betts),
but perhaps she can answer this simple question: exactly how many
cases of voter impersonation produced enough evidence to lead to
a police caution?
The hon. Gentleman makes a series of points that I do not accept.
I do not recognise or accept in any shape or form the statements
he has made on the Floor of this House that we are seeking to
remove the right to vote. I think those were the words he
mentioned. I remind him that 99% of young people already have a
valid form of voter identification, and I have answered the
question put to me on multiple occasions—it is just that
Opposition Members do not like the answer.
(Eltham) (Lab)
The Minister has said that people who are turned away at the desk
by a qualified voting agent will have that fact recorded.
However, if we are looking to understand what is going on as a
result of the requirement for ID when voting, surely those people
who are turned away by a meeter or greeter at the door must also
be recorded, and it is important that the people doing that
meeting and greeting are properly trained to do it? Will the
Minister go away and give some thought to that point, which she
has completely ignored? It will obfuscate any attempt to
understand what is going on if people are being turned away at
the door and not recorded.
I have not obfuscated or ignored the point. I have been clear
that the data on people who are turned away and who later return
to the polling station with accepted ID will be recorded by a
polling clerk or a presiding officer at the issuing desk. As has
been discussed many times in this House, with the arguments
rehearsed by many hon. Members, the greeters outside the polling
station have an important role to play. However, I am sure that
hon. Members can appreciate that, if someone decides not to
exercise the right to vote, in a free and democratic society it
is not for an agent of a local authority to ask intrusively why
that person decides not to vote.
(Kingston upon Hull North)
(Lab)
I wonder whether the Minister can help me with this. Will lower
turnout in the local elections next month be regarded by
Ministers as a success or a failure in terms of what they are
trying to achieve?
What the Government are trying to achieve, and what this
Conservative Government were elected to do, is to improve public
confidence in the process of the exercise of our democracy. I
note for the right hon. Lady that, when similar systems have been
introduced in other major advanced western democracies, public
confidence in the process of voting has gone up. We are an
outlier at the moment and we need to bring ourselves into line
with accepted practice.
(Motherwell and Wishaw)
(SNP)
I am a bit puzzled, so let me ask the Minister this: does she
actually understand the difference between universal suffrage
elections, such as the local elections coming up, and internal
party elections?
Of course I do.
(Barnsley East) (Lab)
The Minister simply has not answered the question whether, if
people turn up outside and are turned away outside, they will be
counted in the data. She has just read out a note that said they
will be counted if they later return. If they do not return, will
they be counted or not? Will she answer the question?
I refer the hon. Lady to my earlier remarks, where I answered the
question clearly.
(Denton and Reddish)
(Lab)
I think the Minister was in her place when my hon. Friend the
Member for Lancaster and Fleetwood () answered my question at Electoral Commission
questions. There is only a week left until the local elections,
and the Minister knows there are a number of immuno- compromised
people for whom catching covid could still be deadly. They will
be required to remove their face masks at the polling station.
Can she look urgently at getting that changed in time for
Thursday, so that those people who can prove they are
immunocompromised do not face the requirement to remove their
face mask in order to get a ballot paper?
I refer the hon. Gentleman to the remarks I made when questioned
on this precise point earlier. I also refer him to the remarks
made in great detail by the hon. Member for Lancaster and
Fleetwood (), who was answering for the Electoral Commission, about
all the work that has gone on to make sure we protect public
health in this situation.
(Wirral West) (Lab)
According to reports this week, it is estimated that only 4% of
the 2 million people who do not have valid ID have applied for a
voter authority certificate. I am extremely concerned that many
of my constituents will not be able to vote on 4 May. What
assessment have the Government made of the number of people in
Wirral West who will not be able to vote on 4 May because they do
not have photo ID?
I say again that it is a shame that Opposition Members are
attempting to engage in this hysterical scaremongering. The hon.
Lady’s voters in Wirral West, just like voters across Great
Britain, have been given all the information they need through
the extensive work that this Government have done alongside the
Electoral Commission. We know that 98% of her voters in Wirral
West will already possess a valid form of voter ID.
(Warwick and Leamington)
(Lab)
It seems that there is considerable anger out there—according to
my postbag, anyway—that the desired effect of this Government’s
actions seems to be discouraging people from voting. I have two
concerns. The first is about what will happen in polling stations
when volunteers and local authority officers have to confront
disgruntled voters. What safety measures will the Minister put in
place? Secondly, in terms of the meet and greet, if data is
important, surely the simple solution is to place an additional
officer outside the polling station to collect that data.
I do not in any way recognise the statement that the hon.
Gentleman made about considerable anger. In fact, nationwide
polling indicates precisely the opposite. The public are actually
satisfied, and they are pleased that we are taking the necessary
steps to increase confidence in the voting system. It is
something that this Government were elected to do, and we are
getting on and doing it.
(York Central)
(Lab/Co-op)
Some 96% of people without ID still do not have any ID at all to
show when they vote, so the Government’s implementation of their
own policy has been completely abysmal. Let us try to be
pragmatic. Since it is an electronic process, why can there not
be emergency measures at polling stations to enable someone who
turns up to vote without ID to create their ID? They would then
have the right to vote, and their democracy would not be
denied.
The Government simply do not recognise the figures that Members
are using or the false voter suppression narrative that they are
putting forward. We know that 98% of the electorate already have
voter ID. We know that many of the people who have not registered
for a free voter authority certificate live in areas that do not
have elections, so they do not need to register for a
certificate. We also know that turnout is sometimes lower than we
would like it to be; that is very disappointing, and we all want
turnout to go up. We all know from knocking on doors, as I am
sure the hon. Lady does assiduously in her constituency, that
sometimes people just do not want to vote. We live in a free
country. We cannot compel people to vote. We do not have a
compulsory voting system.
(Perth and North Perthshire)
(SNP)
What an absolute and utter mess! I have rarely seen a performance
so inept and ill-informed as the Minister’s this morning. The
Government cannot even tell us how those they are
disenfranchising will be recorded. All I can say is, thank
goodness that in Scotland we will have nothing to do with this
voter suppression mechanism for elections under our
responsibility. Does the example of the Norfolk Tory leaflet not
show us that what they are doing is introducing voter fraud where
none existed?
The hon. Gentleman’s comments do him no credit. I will directly
address the remarks about the Norfolk leaflet. The people
responsible apologised straightaway. It went through, I am told,
200 doors. It was a mistake. The leaflet has been withdrawn. If
he has been listening to my remarks throughout this session, he
will know of the extensive work that has gone on to set out all
the ways people can vote, the Government’s position on this, and
the way that we have worked with local authorities and the
Electoral Commission.
(Walsall South) (Lab)
Apologies, Mr Speaker, for missing the start of the urgent
question. May I ask the Minister when the data will be published,
and will she ensure that it is published within 28 days of 4
May?
Yes. I set that out in the earlier part of my answer to the
urgent question, which I am afraid the hon. Lady missed.
(Strangford) (DUP)
I thank the Minister for her answers. In Northern Ireland, most
people know that voter ID is a requirement to vote, unlike in the
UK currently. I always try to be helpful and constructive in my
comments. We in Northern Ireland accept—this is in reference to
what the hon. Member for Inverclyde () said—out-of-date ID that
still has a likeness to the individual. May I ask the Minister to
consider that when allowing individuals to vote in England, as I
believe that there is a legal right to use the franchise? Any
form of photo ID, whether it is out of date or not, should and
must be sufficient.
I thank the hon. Gentleman. He is probably the only Member of
this House who has real experience of the system working.
No, he is not. There are other MPs from Northern Ireland.
I stand corrected by the hon. Gentleman who is speaking from a
sedentary position. The hon. Member for Strangford () is the only such Member I can see in front of me,
present in the Chamber and participating, bringing his experience
of the system in Northern Ireland. He is right that, as I set out
earlier, a photographic ID that is a little out of date but in
which the likeness can still be established is a relevant form of
ID that will be accepted.
Mr Betts
On a point of order, Mr Speaker. Just after I started asking my
urgent question, I received a letter from the chair of the
Electoral Commission John Pullinger, in which he says that the
only data recorded will be those recorded by the polling clerks
when people get to the desks to try to cast their vote and do not
have voter ID. He accepts that the numbers of people met by
meeters and greeters and turned away without voter ID cannot be
recorded, which will compromise the data that is collected by the
polling clerk, so the Electoral Commission will publish two sets
of data: one from polling stations without meeters and greeters
and one from polling stations with them. How can that be a
sensible and co-ordinated information collection to show the
actual impact of the measure?
Mr Speaker
Thank you for the point of order. Minister, are you happy to
answer that?
Further to that point of order, Mr Speaker. I am grateful to be
able to answer that. This has been referred to many times during
the debate. Of course, I have not seen the particular letter to
which the hon. Member refers. To answer the substantive points
that he has put to me, the greeters will not collect the data, as
I have said already from the Dispatch Box. The chair of the
Electoral Commission, the former national statistician, has said
that that would risk providing inaccurate data in an inconsistent
way. Those are important factors that we need to take into
account in our deliberations. All poll clerks have been trained
to record data accurately, and we have provided new burdens
funding. As is right after introducing any new policy, there will
of course be a full evaluation of it, of which formal data
collection in the polling station will be only one part.
Mr Speaker
As Chair of the Speaker’s Committee on the Electoral Commission,
will the Minister write to me as well to clarify whether those
data are recorded? Then I have a very clear answer when Members
come to me in that role.
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