Terms of Reference for the Interministerial Group for Elections and Registration
Published 25 February 2021
1. Attendance
The Interministerial Group (IMG) will be led by the relevant Ministers from across the UK with election policy in their portfolio. Northern Ireland will be represented by Northern Ireland Office Ministers as elections remains an excepted policy area in Northern Ireland.
When portfolio-level expertise is deemed beneficial to the particular conversation at hand, Ministers from other Departments and Ministries can be invited to attend.
2. Function
The aim of the IMG is to consider issues relating to elections and electoral registration policy across the UK. This includes:
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Sharing UK Government, including Northern Ireland Office; Scottish Government; and Welsh Government policy priorities for elections and registration;
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Discussing and coordinating policy and practice relating to the delivery of elections and electoral registration;
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Discussing legislative proposals relating to the electoral or electoral registration process;
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Coordinating expectations from EROs/ROs in terms of new policy, legislation and other changes or events, identifying risks and issues and ensuring they have the capacity and skills to deliver, and protecting the sectors’ resilience;
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Coordinating the support offer from governments and partners to local authorities/valuation joint boards, to support them to deliver their elections and registration statutory duties;
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Considering the wider democratic context, including security arrangements, international practice and experience.
All the Group’s work will adhere to the Memorandum of Understanding on Devolution 2013
3. Operation
Meetings will take place every quarter, but can meet more or less frequently according to need and if agreed by consensus.
Meetings may be virtual or in person; where they are in-person, location will rotate between the governments. Chairing will in all cases rotate between the governments and be determined in advance.
The Senior Officials group will meet in advance of the IMG meetings to agree agendas and background papers. The secretariat will rotate between governments in the same pattern as chairing responsibility.
When the agenda relates to reserved policies led by a specific UK Government department, the items would be introduced and led by the relevant UK Government Minister. The Chair would still be the relevant Minister in line with the pre-agreed rota. Discussions would follow an agenda agreed by all governments, and the process would be facilitated by the secretariat.
Any government would have the right to submit an item to the secretariat to request it be considered at the IMG meeting. The secretariat would be responsible for comparing the item against the above terms of reference and consider the appropriate timings for the item to be considered.