§ Lord Greavesasked Her Majesty's Government:
What research and advice they are seeking on the advantages that may be obtained in the next round of European elections by switching to a voting method (such as open list system or single transferable vote) which, while maintaining proportionality, would allow voters to choose between the candidates nominated by a particular party. [HL1634]
§ Lord Falconer of ThorotonA Home Office review of the 1999 European Paliamentary election, published in May 2000 and available on the DTLR website, included a review of the closed list voting system and concluded that the introduction of this system appeared not to affect voter motivation in that election. We are currently undertaking no further research on the voting system for the next European elections.