Final draft Electoral Commission strategy and policy statement
Subject to Parliamentary approval, the Electoral Commission will be required to have regard to the Statement when carrying out its functions.
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To strengthen the accountability of the Electoral Commission to the UK Parliament whilst respecting the Commission’s operational independence, section 16 of the Elections Act 2022 (“the Act”) made provision for the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities to designate a Strategy and Policy Statement (“Statement”) for the Commission.
The Statement sets out the government’s strategic and policy priorities and the roles and responsibilities of the Commission in enabling the government to meet those priorities, including the government’s determination to tackle issues such as voter fraud, to improve the accessibility of elections, and to improve participation. It also contains guidance relating to particular matters in respect of which the Commission has functions. If approved by Parliament, the Commission will have a duty to have regard to the Statement when carrying out its functions.
The Electoral Commission is accountable to the UK Parliament via the Speaker’s Committee on the Electoral Commission (“Speaker’s Committee”). The Statement strengthens the Commission’s accountability to Parliament because section 17 of the Act gave the Speaker’s Committee new powers to examine the Commission’s performance of its duty to have regard to the Statement.
The Act established a set of procedural requirements which must be fulfilled before the Secretary of State may designate the Statement. In accordance with these requirements, the draft Statement has been subject to a statutory consultation and the enhanced parliamentary procedure.
The statutory consultation took place between 22 August 2022 and 20 December 2022. After considering the views of consultees, the government made substantive amendments to the original draft. On 8 June 2023, the government then laid the revised draft Statement and its response to the consultation before Parliament for a 60-day period to invite representations from Parliamentarians. This period ended on 14 September 2023. The Secretary of State has since considered the representations received and whether to make any amendments to the draft Statement in light of them.
On 14 December 2023, the government laid the final draft Statement before Parliament for approval alongside a report containing the government’s response to parliamentary representations. Before the Secretary of State may designate the Statement, the final draft must be approved by a resolution of each House within a 40-day period of being laid. The 40-day period excludes any period when Parliament is dissolved or prorogued, or when both Houses are not sitting for more than four days. The draft Statement and government response to representations have also been deposited in the libraries of both Houses.