Asked by: Greg Knight (Conservative - East Yorkshire)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if he will introduce a trial of electronic voting in a pilot area with a view to avoiding delays occurred by manual counting of ballot papers; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Chris Skidmore
There are no plans to trial electronic voting. The selection of elected representatives for Parliament is regarded as requiring the highest possible level of integrity and, at present, there are concerns that e-Voting, by any means, is not seen by many to be suitably rigorous and secure, and could be vulnerable to attack or fraud. The Government has stated in its manifesto that it will retain the traditional method of voting by pencil and paper, and tackle every aspect of electoral fraud.
Asked by: Greg Knight (Conservative - East Yorkshire)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if he will take steps to allow postal voting ballot papers to be counted separately in order to more easily detect fraud.
Answered by John Penrose
The law provides for the checking of the integrity of completed postal ballots prior to them being included in the count. Returning Officers are required to check 100% of postal vote identifiers (signatures and dates of birth) returned with completed postal votes against those supplied by the elector when they applied for a postal vote. Any that do not match will not be counted in order to prevent any attempt at electoral fraud. The law requires that postal ballot papers are mixed with ballot papers from a ballot box before they can be counted as a necessary step in order to help protect the secrecy of the ballot.
Asked by: Greg Knight (Conservative - East Yorkshire)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what progress the Government is making in implementating the EU Directive 2014/55/EU on invoicing in public sector procurement; what steps he has taken to ensure that all Departments will be in a position to implement the directive fully by autumn 2018; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Lord Maude of Horsham
The Government is committed to the introduction of electronic invoicing across the public sector. The Small Business Enterprise and Employment Bill includes clauses that will enable Ministers to make regulations on the acceptance of e-invoices by public bodies.