HL Deb 09 December 2004 vol 667 cc62-3WS
Lord Rooker

My right honourable friend the Minister of State for Local and Regional Government has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.

My right honourable friends the Deputy Prime Minister and the Secretary of State for Constitutional Affairs are jointly publishing today the government response to the Electoral Commission's report, Delivering Democracy?

In its report, the commission set out its evaluation of the electoral pilots in June 2004. It found that the elections were successfully delivered; there was no evidence that all-postal voting led to an increase in fraud; and a majority of more than 2:1 were either very or fairly satisfied with the all-postal voting arrangement in their pilot area.

The commission also found that voters wanted to have choice about the way in which they vote. That is consistent with the Government's long-term goal of multi-channel elections, including voters having the options of electronic, postal voting and voting in person.

We are not, however, persuaded by the commission's arguments that all-postal voting should not be pursued at UK elections. They are not supported by the outcome of the June elections, where turnout was substantially higher in the pilot regions and a large majority found the all-postal method acceptable. Furthermore, the turnout achieved in the north-east regional referendum underlined the value of all-postal voting in increasing participation.

In its report, the commission proposes the development of a new model of voting. We welcome the opportunity to contribute to that work and will have regard to the progress of the work when assessing any new proposals for all-postal voting.

The Electoral Commission also indicated that it would not support pilots in May 2005—or any at all until the new model was in use. We have decided not to issue a prospectus inviting applications for pilots in the county council elections in May 2005. It remains, however, open any time, to local authorities to apply to run all-postal pilots. The Government remain committed to a programme of electoral pilots in 2006 and subsequent years, including e-voting pilots.

We hope that the publication of this response will substantially move forward the modernisation agenda for elections.

Copies of this government response to the Electoral Commission's report will be placed in the Libraries of both Houses.