Lord Pickles to give evidence to Lords Electoral Registration Act Committee

The Committee was appointed in the spring to examine the Act and find out how well it is working in practice. It will then make recommendations on how the Act can be improved.

Giving evidence to the Committee at 3.30pm will be Peter Stanyon, Chief Executive of the Association of Electoral Administrators. The Association is an independent body that represents those who deliver electoral services in the UK.

Questions the Committee is likely to ask him include:

• Has the Act been successful in tackling fraud? Are there other vulnerabilities to fraud that are still not being addressed?
• What impact has the introduction of individual electoral registration had on the work of electoral administrators? What have been the benefits and disadvantages of the new system?
• Has individual electoral registration affected efforts to identify and reach under-registered groups?
• How have the voter ID pilots fared?
• What are the annual canvass's key problems?
• At 4.30pm the Committee will hear from The Rt Hon. the Lord Pickles. In 2016 Lord Pickles published a report into electoral fraud which recommended a number of changes to reform the registration process.

Questions the Committee is likely to ask him include:

• How effective has the Government's efforts to tackle electoral fraud been since your report, Securing the ballot: review into electoral fraud, was published?
• How close is the relationship between electoral registration and fraud?
• Has the Government been over-zealous in focusing on accuracy over completeness when it comes to electoral registration?
• Are further reforms needed to improve the integrity of the electoral registers, both in terms of accuracy and completeness?
• What is your response to concerns that the introduction of voter ID in polling stations, which your report recommended, will disenfranchise voters and reduce voter turnout?

These evidence sessions, which are open to the public, will start at 3.30pm on Tuesday 23 July in Committee Room 3 of the House of Lords.