King's Speech 2026: Representation of the People Bill

Wednesday, 13 May 2026 12:10

The Representation of the People Bill renews and protects democracy. The Bill is focused on bringing British democratic traditions into the modern era, ensuring that they are stronger, safer and more inclusive, while protecting our democracy from external threats. Most notably it extends the right to vote to 16 and 17 year olds, the most significant expansion of the franchise in over half a century. The Bill also protects the integrity...Request free trial

The Representation of the People Bill renews and protects democracy. The Bill is focused on bringing British democratic traditions into the modern era, ensuring that they are stronger, safer and more inclusive, while protecting our democracy from external threats. Most notably it extends the right to vote to 16 and 17 year olds, the most significant expansion of the franchise in over half a century.

The Bill also protects the integrity of elections by tightening political finance rules, strengthening enforcement by the Electoral Commission, improving transparency around digital campaign material, and introducing tougher measures to tackle harassment and intimidation of candidates, campaigners, and electoral staff.

What does the Bill do?

The Bill is designed to secure UK elections against those who threaten them; to protect those who participate; to ensure democracy remains open and accessible to legitimate voters; and to strengthen and preserve democracy for the next generation.

The Bill will:

Give 16 and 17 year olds the right to vote in all UK elections, increasing the engagement of young people in our vibrant democracy, as committed to in the manifesto. Early engagement by younger voters will build the foundations for their lifetime participation in the electoral processes.

Broaden the range of ID that can be used at a polling station in Great Britain to allow the use of UK-authorised bank cards. Legitimate electors should not be prevented from voting, and we are committed to ensuring everyone eligible to vote is able and encouraged to do so. While the existing requirement to show ID is valuable to protect electors from the risk of personation, the current rules are too restrictive. This change will allow a greater proportion of legitimate electors to more easily meet the voter identification requirements.

Work to test new automated registration systems. Automated registration could remove a key barrier to eligible citizens participating in

democracy. The Bill will provide a legal power to run pilots on electoral registration. This is intended to provide a route to test novel approaches to registration now and in the future.

Introduce tougher rules on political donations to protect UK elections, safeguarding against foreign interference, improving political transparency, adding tougher checks for donations and closing loopholes by reinforcing electoral legislation against foreign interference. These changes will meet an evolving and sophisticated threat, while making sure legitimate donors can continue to fund electoral campaigns.

Strengthen the role and powers of the Electoral Commission to maximise the impact of reforms to political finance rules. As the independent regulator, the role of the Electoral Commission is invaluable in upholding trust in democracy. Through addressing historical enforcement gaps, expanding the Electoral Commission's civil sanctioning powers, and improving operational effectiveness, these reforms will ensure that enforcement provides a clear deterrent against breaking the law whilst remaining proportionate.

Tackle harassment and intimidation of voters, electoral staff and campaigners, both online and in person. This conduct is totally unacceptable and has a profoundly detrimental impact on the democratic process, deterring people from campaigning and standing for public office. The Bill expands the law so those who are convicted of intimidating or abusing electoral staff can be disqualified from standing for or holding elected office. It also empowers courts to give tougher sentences to those who abuse candidates, campaigners, elected representatives and electoral staff, and removes the requirement for candidates who are acting as their own election agents to have their home address published on the notice of election agents.

Introduce measures to improve the transparency of digital imprint rules, and placing enforcement on a clearer and more proportionate footing. Transparency around who is promoting political advertising is a key part of equipping people with the tools to scrutinise political messages and make informed decisions in elections and referendums. Digital imprints are designed to make it clear to the public which person or organisation is responsible for promoting an advert. Under existing rules, third party campaigners who spend under a certain threshold, are not required to include imprints on their organic digital campaigning material. To close this loophole, we will add any person who is a third party campaigner, but is not a recognised third party or an individual, to

the list of entities who are required to include digital imprints on their organic digital campaigning material.

Improve the resilience and capacity of the postal voting system, by bringing forward the deadline for candidate nominations; moving the postal vote application deadline earlier; and clarifying key processes to Returning Officers to reduce risk and improve delivery. Postal voting is now a significant part of UK elections, with more than a quarter of votes at the 2024 General Election cast by post. Growing demand is placing pressure on local election teams and the supply chain –including specialist suppliers and postal services – these measures are designed to relieve such pressure.

Territorial extent and application

The Bill extends and applies differently across the UK. This is to take account of differences in electoral systems with local government and devolved legislature elections being devolved in Scotland and Wales, and the unique electoral system in Northern Ireland.

Key facts

There are around 1.7 million eligible 16 and 17 year olds who will be able to have a say in UK Parliamentary elections for the very first time once these reforms have passed.

Evidence from places that have lowered the voting age shows that doing so can increase turnout when implemented in a supportive environment, according to a 2023 Electoral Commission report.

Young people have told us that they not only want their voices to be heard but for action to be taken as a result. They want the power and agency to take control of their lives, make their own choices and be part of decisions that affect them.

At the 2024 UK General Election, a small but significant number (0.25 per cent, approximately 50,000) of electors were initially turned away from polling stations because they did not have an accepted form of photographic identification. Of these, approximately 16,000 (0.08 per cent of electors) did not return to vote, according to the Electoral Commission's report into Voter ID at the 2024 UK general election, July 2024.

At least two per cent of people in Great Britain do not hold a form of ID on the current list, according to research by Ipsos on Electoral Integrity, published

February 2025. Around four percent of non-voters in the General Election cited voter ID as a factor in their not turning out to vote (Electoral Commission report “Voter ID at the 2024 UK general election”, July 2024).

Research by MHCLG shows that allowing the use of bank cards will reduce the proportion of electors without an accepted form of ID to under one per cent -making it far easier for legitimate electors to meet the voter ID requirements and vote at the polling station (Electoral Resilience and Democratic Engagement Programme: Voter identification research, November 2025).

In its 2023 report “Electoral Registers in the UK”, the Electoral Commission estimates that between seven and eight million eligible people are either incorrectly registered or not registered to vote at all. Certain groups including young people, renters, some ethnic minorities, and those from lower-socio economic groups are less likely to be registered to vote.

The maximum fine the Electoral Commission can currently impose for breaches of the political finance framework is £20,000 per offence. Given party spending limits during UK Parliamentary General Election campaigns stand at £35 million, key stakeholders, including the Electoral Commission, the Ethics and Integrity Commission (formerly Committee on Standards in Public Life), and the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee have described the current maximum fine as an inadequate deterrent.

In 2024, the police investigated 445 cases under the Representation of the People Act 1983 and currently have only issued a single police caution (Electoral Commission's 2024 electoral fraud data, March 2025). This included 17 cases relating to expense returns, none of which have resulted in convictions or police cautions. There is currently an ‘enforcement gap' in relation to candidate, local third party and recall petition campaign finance where breaches of the rules can only be investigated by the police and referred for criminal prosecution which is often considered to be disproportionate to the offence and not in the public interest.

The Electoral Commission's submission of evidence to the Speaker's Conference found that 55 per cent of respondents had experienced some form of harassment, intimidation or abuse, with ethnic minority and female candidates being more likely to report having experienced serious abuse. 52 per cent of MPs reported they did not feel safe doing their job. 49 per cent said they had experienced anxiety or depression due to the abuse and intimidation. One in three MPs had considered not standing for re-election due to the scale of threats and abuse. One in six MPs had considered resigning from public office altogether.

At the 2024 General Election, just over one in four of the votes cast were cast by post. 89 per cent of postal voters reported satisfaction with the process of voting at the 2024 UK Parliamentary general election 95 per cent in Northern Ireland, 91 per cent in Wales, 89 per cent in England and 85 per cent in Scotland. This is according to the Electoral Commission's report into the May 2024 elections.

The Electoral Reform Society's view is that “This Representation of the People Bill is a major step forward for our democracy. It will give more young people a say, modernise our outdated registration system, and strengthen rules around campaign finance.”