A new Constitution Unit report by Meg Russell, Hannah White and Lisa James, published jointly with the Institute for Government, provides a menu of constitutional reform options ahead of political parties’ manifesto preparation. Its chapters have been published on this blog throughout August, with this final excerpt identifying potential changes relating to elections and public participation.
Democracy rests ultimately on popular sovereignty. But the bond of trust between the public and their representatives – which is essential for healthy democratic governance – has become increasingly frayed. Public engagement with the political process has long been a cause for concern, and there is a desire to boost public trust and participation. In recent years, particular concerns have been voiced about the government’s attitudes towards the Electoral Commission, its policies on public protest and on voter ID, and a change in the electoral system for local mayors that appeared to be motivated by partisan gain. At a more mundane but nonetheless important level, there are also long-running challenges to the fair and effective administration of elections.
A range of reforms to elections, the conduct of campaigns, and the wider role of the public in processes of policymaking have been proposed to tackle these concerns. Some improvements could be made immediately. A number of others would require legislation, but would be largely uncontroversial, or could be implemented fairly straightforwardly through other means. Proposals for more fundamental change – most obviously to the Westminster voting system, and party funding – would be much more contested.
Quick win
The Elections Act 2022 empowered ministers to prepare a ‘strategy and policy statement’ for the Electoral Commission. Experts widely view the existence of such a statement as a threat to the Commission’s independence. Three Commons committees sharply criticised the government’s first draft, leading to revisions. Ministers should not proceed further with designating a strategy and policy statement for the Electoral Commission. Rather, they should simply affirm their commitment to the Commission’s independence and welcome its work. Should a statement be designated, a future government should withdraw it.
Moderate changes
Public participation and deliberation
Public participation and deliberation processes are increasingly and successfully being used in the democratic system in and outside the UK. Such processes bring members of the public into policymaking, enable more thoughtful policy dialogue, and bridge the gulf between citizens and their representatives. There are various positive steps that could be taken in this area:
- The government should announce a review of how deliberative processes such as citizens’ assemblies could be embedded most effectively in policymaking and governance in the UK. Possible ideas include involving such bodies in pre-legislative scrutiny, to support the standards system, or as a more frequent part of select committee inquiries.
- In the meantime, the government should commit to holding citizens’ assemblies on one or two specified issues. These might be issues where a need for fresh thinking is widely accepted, but progress has proved elusive, such as assisted dying or house-building.
- Government and parliament should build know-how and capacity for commissioning and/or delivering processes such as citizens’ assemblies. The Scottish Parliament has done this by creating a Participation & Communities Team, the role of which is to enable wide participation in parliamentary work.
Voter ID
A new requirement for voters to show ID at polling stations for all non-devolved elections in Great Britain was first implemented at the May 2023 English local elections. Initial analysis by the Electoral Commission suggests that the change excluded at least 0.25% of eligible voters from participation, and probably significantly more. Further evidence will be published by the Commission and others in the coming months.
- The government will need to evaluate whether changes to the voter ID system are needed. Depending on the evidence gathered, changes could be minor, such as extending the list of eligible forms of ID, or improving information. Or they could be major, such as abolishing the ID requirement, or introducing a national ID scheme for everyone.
The conduct of elections and referendums
The Law Commissions pointed in 2020 to an urgent need for simplification of electoral law, but action has not yet been taken. Other reforms are also widely seen as desirable.
- The government should consolidate electoral law into a single, modern legislative framework, as recommended by the Law Commissions. This would cover matters including the franchise, voting system, electoral register, absentee voting, regulation of electoral campaigns, electoral offences, and provisions on legal challenge to elections. Where possible, the approach should be coordinated across the four administrations in the UK. Careful consideration would need to be given to how far the law is modernised at the same time as it is consolidated. Updates are badly needed, but attempting too much in one step would be challenging. The Association of Electoral Administrators has proposed a royal commission or Speaker’s conference to build cross-party support for modernisation, but either would take time.
- There are currently no standing rules on the referendum franchise and many other aspects of referendum conduct. Concerns have been expressed about this both by the Law Commissions and the Constitution Unit’s Independent Commission on Referendums. Election rules should, where relevant, extend to referendums.
- As the Electoral Commission has argued, electoral administrators should be adequately resourced to carry out their democratic functions: at present, the system is threadbare. Legislators and government should also be mindful of the additional burdens that large changes place on administrators.
- Beyond declining to issue one (see ‘Quick wins’), ministers should act to repeal legislative provision for an Electoral Commission strategy and policy statement. A recent Constitution Unit report has made further recommendations to enhance the Commission’s independence.
Election and referendum campaigns
Voters have long struggled to find the information that they want during election and referendum campaigns, from sources that they trust. Such problems have become more acute in the digital age, and problems of disinformation are widely acknowledged to be rampant.
- As the Commons Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee (PACAC) and others have argued, the regulation of online political advertising should not be left to social media companies. Ofcom should be empowered to set minimum standards and obligations, working closely with the Electoral Commission. The operation of the new rules for ‘imprints’ on digital advertisements should be monitored. To aid transparency, a distinct spending reporting category should be created for digital campaign material.
- Information about candidates, issues, manifestos and other matters during campaigns should be improved. Ministers should allow the Electoral Commission the space to work with broadcasters and NGOs to develop a plan for delivering such information. Parties and campaigners have an important duty to support such efforts.
Political finance
The current system of political finance is vulnerable to abuse. The simplification and consolidation of existing legislation, noted above, would help: current rules are sometimes unclear, making compliance and enforcement difficult. Further measures would not be controversial.
- The Committee on Standards in Public Life (CSPL) has recommended that legislation should be updated to tighten requirements on parties and non-party campaigners around accepting donations.
- The Electoral Commission and Spotlight on Corruption have proposed that political parties should be required to comply with anti-money-laundering regulations and due diligence checks, as already required, for example, of charities and financial service providers.
- CSPL and others have recommended that the maximum fines that can be levied by the Electoral Commission should be increased, as has already happened in relation to referendums in Scotland.
The right to protest
The limits of legitimate public protest have been much contested in recent years. Ministers have introduced new restrictions in the name of ensuring a fair balance between the rights of protestors and those of the wider public, but critics argue that these changes infringe upon fundamental democratic freedoms.
- The government should review the most contested recent changes regarding the right to protest, and consider whether some rowing back of these constraints is necessary. But research suggests a sharp division of public opinion on this matter along partisan lines, and changes in this area are likely to be contested.
Larger, more controversial reforms
Major changes to voting systems should not be introduced without an appropriate degree of cross-party or public support: the basic rules of elections should never be the plaything of the party or parties in power alone. Bigger reforms should therefore be approached with caution. They are also likely to be contentious between parties, and quite possibly within parties as well.
- Survey evidence suggests that public support for replacing the First Past the Post (FPTP) voting system at Westminster with a more proportional alternative has risen in recent years. No voting system is perfect, and there would be both pros and cons to any change. The 2011 referendum on the Alternative Vote system created a clear precedent for how decisions about basic electoral reform should be decided.
- The Elections Act 2022 replaced the Supplementary Vote (SV) system for electing mayors and police and crime commissioners with FPTP. SV had previously commanded cross-party support, and good arguments for using FPTP to elect single executive offices are hard to come by. Labour opposed the change and may wish to propose reverting to the previous system.
- Several political parties now advocate lowering the voting age to 16. In Wales, the Expert Panel on Assembly Electoral Reform, whose work paved the way for the introduction of votes at 16 for Senedd elections, found evidence that the change can boost participation in elections. But it does so only when paired with education about politics in schools and the wider community – and, even then, the evidence is mixed. Introducing votes at 16 should therefore not be regarded as a simple matter: it would need to be accompanied by wider reforms. Other aspects of the franchise – including for foreign nationals in the UK and for prisoners – have also long been vexed.
- The introduction of caps on donations to political causes has long been debated, but has always foundered on interparty disagreements. The role of big money in politics harms democratic equality and undermines public confidence. Equally, political parties perform important functions in the representative system and need to be able to finance their activities.
This is the final blog in a series of posts based on five chapters from the recent joint Constitution Unit and Institute for Government report Rebuilding and Renewing the Constitution: Options for Reform. Previous chapters have covered the executive branch, parliament and the territorial constitution; the final post will look at elections and public participation. A summary post marking the report’s publication is available on this blog, and the full report is available for download on the Constitution Unit and Institute for Government websites.
About the authors
Meg Russell FBA is Professor of British and Comparative Politics at UCL and Director of the Constitution Unit.
Hannah White is Director of the Institute for Government.
Lisa James is a Research Fellow at the Constitution Unit.
Featured image: Ballot boxes arrive at Coventry’s count (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0) by Coventry City Council.