Draft Voter Identification (Amendment of List of Specified Documents) (Northern Ireland) Regulations 2026
Draft Voter Identification (Amendment of List of Specified Documents) (Local Elections) (Northern Ireland) Order 2026
Draft Local Elections (Northern Ireland) (Uprating Election Expenses) Order 2026
(1 day, 23 hours ago)
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The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Northern Ireland (Sarah Owen)
I beg to move,
That the Committee has considered the draft Voter Identification (Amendment of List of Specified Documents) (Northern Ireland) Regulations 2026.
The Chair
With this it will be convenient to consider the draft Voter Identification (Amendment of List of Specified Documents) (Local Elections) (Northern Ireland) Order 2026 and the draft Local Elections (Northern Ireland) (Uprating Election Expenses) Order 2026.
Sarah Owen
It is a pleasure to see you in the Chair, Sir Edward, for what is my first delegated legislation Committee as a Minister, of which I am sure there will be many. It is also a pleasure to welcome the shadow Minister, the hon. Member for Bridlington and The Wolds, to his place. We have spent a lot of time together in the Chamber, but we had not yet officially appeared opposite each other.
The draft statutory instruments, which were laid before the House on 13 July 2026, introduce certain changes to the electoral system in Northern Ireland. Their primary objective is to expand voter accessibility and encourage participation across the electorate in Northern Ireland. They will align certain rules governing Northern Ireland elections more closely with those of Great Britain.
The draft regulations update the list of acceptable forms of ID that can be used by voters at polling stations in parliamentary and Assembly elections in Northern Ireland. The draft voter identification order makes identical changes to the list for local elections in Northern Ireland. The draft local elections order will uprate expenditure limits for candidates standing in local elections in Northern Ireland to reflect rising costs caused by inflation. An equivalent uplift in the spending limit for reserved elections in Great Britain and for UK parliamentary and Assembly elections in Northern Ireland was approved by Parliament in 2023.
Before I proceed, I draw the Committee’s attention to the correction slip for the draft voter identification order, which corrects a minor typo. In the last paragraph, on page 1, the words “on him section” have been amended to “on Him by section”, in reference to section 84 of the Northern Ireland Act 1998. I am sure that the beady-eyed on the Committee had already spotted that typo. That section allows Northern Ireland local election rules to be amended by Order in Council, and “Him” is a reference to His Majesty the King.
The draft regulations will introduce new identity documents that can be used by voters at polling stations in UK parliamentary, Northern Ireland Assembly and local elections. The documents being added are the Commonwealth passport, the proof of age standards scheme card, the HM armed forces veteran card, and the blue badge from the disabled persons’ parking scheme in Northern Ireland and Great Britain. Those forms of ID are already accepted at polling stations in the rest of the United Kingdom.
Expanding the list of acceptable documents will support electoral participation across Northern Ireland. Both the chief electoral officer for Northern Ireland and the Electoral Commission are supportive of the change. Ensuring that those who cast their vote are eligible to do so is vital to uphold trust in electoral institutions and processes. The requirement for an elector to produce ID is an important part of protecting that principle.
Producing photographic ID at polling stations has been a requirement in Northern Ireland elections since 2003, and it is a well-understood and established part of the electoral process. Security requirements mean that the list of acceptable IDs in Northern Ireland has historically been more restrictive and updated less frequently than the list in Great Britain. Increasing the number of acceptable IDs will remove barriers to voting and support more people in Northern Ireland, including some of the most vulnerable in society, to participate in our democracy, while retaining important electoral security measures.
The draft local elections order will uprate the spending limits for candidates in Northern Ireland’s local elections. The limit will increase from £600 plus 5p per elector registered to vote in the district electoral area in which the candidate is standing, to £960 plus 8p per elector registered to vote in the district electoral area. That will bring the spending limit in Northern Ireland in line with the spending limit for local elections in England.
The existing spending limits for local election candidates in Northern Ireland have remained unchanged since they were first set in 2005. Spending limits across all other reserved elections were uprated to reflect the rise in inflation in 2023. Consequently, candidates standing in local elections in Northern Ireland face a disadvantage compared with those standing in parliamentary and Assembly elections in Northern Ireland, or in local elections in England.
An effective democracy relies on the ability of political parties, candidates and other campaigners to communicate their views so that voters can make informed decisions. The current limits mean that local election candidates in Northern Ireland are restricted by lower real-term spending on campaigning. The Electoral Commission has been consulted on the changes, in line with the statutory duty of the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, and it supports the new measures.
The draft instruments are necessary to support more people in Northern Ireland to participate in and engage with our democracy. Expanding the list of acceptable voter IDs is an important step in updating electoral processes to reflect the modern electorate in Northern Ireland while preserving the additional security features that are essential to maintaining trust in Northern Ireland’s electoral system. Uprating local election campaign spending limits will ensure that spending limits remain aligned in real terms with the original limits set by Parliament.
Charlie Dewhirst (Bridlington and The Wolds) (Con)
I thank the Minister for her kind words and welcome her formally to her new role. May I also welcome the new hon. Member for Holborn and St Pancras to her first delegated legislation Committee? I am sure that she will come to enjoy them as much as I have in the past two and a bit years.
The three draft statutory instruments bring Northern Ireland’s voter ID and spending rules into line with the rules that apply in the rest of the United Kingdom, mainly England. As such, we do not oppose the measures. When they were debated in the other place last month, my noble Friend Lord Caine raised a number of questions on behalf of His Majesty’s official Opposition. I wonder whether the Minister could provide us with an update on the Government’s latest thinking.
Although we welcome the fact that the veteran card is being added to the list of acceptable identification, some veterans in Northern Ireland may still be reticent about holding one or being identified as a veteran, given the security concerns. Of course, that is no reason not to grant electors the option to use a veteran card if they wish to do so, but what work have the Government done to assess the possibility that veterans in Northern Ireland may be reluctant to carry such a card and use it as voter ID?
Likewise, my noble Friend said that the Representation of the People Bill will amend legislation to allow the use of non-photographic bank cards, and queried whether Ministers had made an assessment of the impact on electoral fraud in Northern Ireland. He pointed out that it was a Labour Government who legislated in the early 2000s to move from paper ID to photo ID for Northern Ireland, given the historical experience of high levels of voter personation there. The Minister in the other place replied:
“There are no plans for that to happen in Northern Ireland, given the wider context”.—[Official Report, House of Lords, 14 September 2026; Vol. 859, c. GC367.]
I would be grateful if the Minister could confirm that that remains the position.
Last year, when previous regulations were debated, the Minister gave assurances that the Government would use every measure at their disposal to ensure that the 87,000 retained electors would not be removed from the register. Those regulations provided a framework for auditing and engaging such electors. Will the Minister tell us what progress has been made to date, especially as next year will be the sixth year of the retention period?
Assurances were also given by the Minister in the other place that the extended retention period would be used by the Government and the chief electoral officer to ensure that the register is as complete as it can be. What assurance can the present Minister give that that is the case, and that a more robust system will be in place to ensure that 6% of the electorate is not at risk of being taken off the register?
Turning to spending limits, we agree that bringing limits in line with the rest of the UK is sensible, but my noble Friend Lord Caine also highlighted that the Cabinet Office and the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government recently announced a review of candidate spending limits, with the implication that they are too high. Will the Minister update us on that situation and on whether we are likely to need to revisit those changes soon?
Finally, as we debate the changes to electoral regulations in Northern Ireland, it is worth briefly bearing in mind the wider electoral changes that the Government have announced. First, there is the votes at 16 policy, which is in my view a bad idea. Last month, the Minister in the other place indicated that the Government are considering what measures may need to be updated to ensure that the 48,000 16 and 17-year-olds—
Charlie Dewhirst
I appreciate your guidance, Sir Edward. I was just asking whether the Government could update us on what they would do for the 48,000 16 and 17-year-old voters who will require ID should they become eligible to vote.
Secondly, in an era of ever more sectarian politics, with which Northern Ireland is sadly all too familiar, the Prime Minister has announced plans for a commission on electoral reform, which he appears to have rather prejudged by also committing himself to a manifesto pledge on electoral reform. The Government seem to want to remove from the voters of Northern Ireland the power to sack MPs. Will the Minister agree that changing the voting system in Northern Ireland should not be done without a referendum on the issue?
The draft instruments bring Northern Ireland’s voter ID and spending rules in line with those that apply in the rest of the United Kingdom. As such, we do not oppose the measures, but it would be useful if the Minister updated the Committee on a number of important issues.
Mr Paul Kohler (Wimbledon) (LD)
Is the list now identical in Northern Ireland? I just looked it up, and in England someone can have a blind person’s badge issued in Northern Ireland, but that does not appear to be on the Northern Ireland list. Are the lists identical—and if not, why not?
Sarah Owen
I thank the shadow Minister, the hon. Member for Bridlington and The Wolds, and the Lib Dem spokesperson, the hon. Member for Wimbledon, for their input. I will respond to as many of their points as possible.
To respond to the Lib Dem spokesperson, the lists are not identical between the rest of GB and Northern Ireland, because Northern Ireland requires a photographic form of identification. There is some divergence between the two, but that is a historic and well-trodden path for Northern Ireland. That is the reason why there is some difference.
Let me address the points made by the shadow Minister. First, on the veterans card, we totally understand that there will be some sensitivities, and that some people will not feel comfortable using their veterans card or carrying it with them, but the expansion to include it is about choice and ensuring that veterans can, should they wish to do so, present their veterans card at the voting booths.
The Government are looking keenly at measures to ensure that we do not lose voters from the electoral register—that is across my desk. The reason we are introducing the measures is to ensure the widest possible participation in all elections in Northern Ireland, and that is what we want to continue doing. At this stage, we do not envisage revisiting the candidate spend.
On votes at 16, of course our positions differ. We will revisit that specifically for Northern Ireland when it comes into force. The wider context of reforms has come up time and again in relation to Northern Ireland, but it is not necessarily about what the politicians want to change; it is about what businesses, people and the public sector in Northern Ireland will be crying out for: a wider package of reforms, beyond the scope of what we are discussing today.
The Committee will agree that encouraging participation in our democracy is vital. I hope that the Committee agrees that the draft instruments will maintain the integrity of the electoral system in Northern Ireland, respecting well-understood safeguards, while adapting to keep pace with modern practices. I am pleased to introduce the measures and I commend them to the Committee.
Question put and agreed to.
Resolved,
That the Committee has considered the draft Voter Identification (Amendment of List of Specified Documents) (Northern Ireland) Regulations 2026.
Draft Voter Identification (Amendment of List of Specified Documents) (Local Elections) (Northern Ireland) Order 2026
Resolved,
That the Committee has considered the draft Voter Identification (Amendment of List of Specified Documents) (Local Elections) (Northern Ireland) Order 2026.—(Sarah Owen.)
Draft Local Elections (Northern Ireland) (Uprating Election Expenses) Order 2026
Resolved,
That the Committee has considered the draft Local Elections (Northern Ireland) (Uprating Election Expenses) Order 2026.—(Sarah Owen.)