Voting at 16

Lord Beamish Excerpts

Thursday 24th July 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Khan of Burnley (Lab)]

My Lords, more widely, a programme of work, including engagement with the Electoral Commission, local authorities, think tanks, academic and civil society organisations, is being done to identify the barriers to participation, along with potential interventions to tackle those barriers. This programme of work addresses issues around participation in our democracy, including participation in elections both by those not on the register and those registered but not voting. I am happy to speak to various stakeholders and listen to the views of young people, who are the most important in this aspect.

[Lord Beamish (Lab)]

My Lords, the last Government introduced a number of measures to reduce participation, including photo ID and renewal of postal votes after three years. I agree with the noble Lord, Lord Rennard, that the only way we are going to get young people and others on the register is auto-enrolment. That is done in many other countries in the world and, if we are to get maximum participation, the Government will have missed an opportunity if they do not do it.

[Lord Khan of Burnley (Lab)]

My Lords, my noble friend makes a very interesting point. In relation to this, my department is working with the electoral administration sector and those in the further and higher education sector to explore approaches to help people register. We will, I hope, take steps to move towards what my noble friend wants to do, but it is not straightforward, because electoral law is quite complicated. We do not want to rush this, we want to do it right and it is an important piece of work. On voter ID, my noble friend will be happy to know that we have added bank cards to the list of acceptable voter ID. Bank cards are held by the overwhelming majority of the electorate, and this change will significantly reduce the proportion of legitimate electors who are unable to meet the identification requirements.