Representation of the People (Postal Vote Handling and Secrecy) (Amendment) Regulations 2023

Lord Scriven Excerpts

Tuesday 24th October 2023 Grand Committee

[Lord Hayward (Con)]

My Lords, I put on record my welcoming of the regulations and, as I indicated during the passage of the Act, my support for the broad range of the proposals in relation to controlling postal votes and the fraud which has gone on. I say that without any shadow of a doubt, as on one occasion I went to Tower Hamlets to campaign in a by-election and, as I got out of the Tube, I was confronted by people exchanging voting forms in front of me. I hesitate to imply that Tower Hamlets has been the cause of much of this legislation, but it seems to have been on occasion. However, to ensure that it is not the sole location identified, Richard Mawrey, who sat in judgment on the Birmingham case several years ago, said that the events in Birmingham in relation to voting fraud gave banana republics a bad name. He was essentially taking a view primarily in relation to postal votes, but also to other elements of fraud.

I will make a quick comment in relation to my noble friend’s opening comments. I think that he referred to 2026. It would be rather perceptive of us to be discussing something that arose from a report published in 2026. I think that he meant—and that everybody in the Moses Room knows he meant—2016.

I return to a point that I made in discussions on the last statutory instrument that we discussed. Yet again we have proof of the serious need for the consolidation of elections law. We are passing a series of regulations in relation to one election, but we have to have another set of papers in relation to another election and another election. The Elections Act 2022 is a mere 176 pages long. The regulations that we have in front of us today, which are only one of a series of sets of statutory instruments that we are facing, are 194 pages long. Last week, we considered two SIs, one of which was 34 pages long and another of which was 50 pages long. The vast majority of cases from which this arises is because we are covering different elections under different pieces of legislation, of which there has been no consolidation. We would not need this vast proliferation of paperwork if we had a consolidated piece of legislation.

Having said that, I will say that I think statutory instruments have grown. I did some research with the Library in relation to the amount of pages of statutory instrument documentation required on voter ID when it was introduced in Northern Ireland and the comparison with when it was introduced in England. Unfortunately, I have not finished that research, but I have a strong suspicion that, rather like Topsy, these things are just growing.

I will make just two other points. I welcome this legislation because, when I proceeded with the Ballot Secrecy Act, large numbers of people said to me that I was tackling the question of intimidation, overseeing other people’s voting in a polling booth, but asked what I was going to do in relation to postal votes—and I said that that had already been dealt with. The two pieces of legislation go hand in hand, and they are beneficial to achieving free and fair elections.

In conclusion, I remind my noble friend that, when I spoke last time on the statutory instrument, I made a request for a meeting to discuss the correspondence that I have had with the department—and I sought an indication of the date on which counsel’s opinion had been transferred from the Electoral Commission to the officials. As yet, I have not even received information in relation to the date of transfer which, after all is said and done, is merely a question of looking at the top of an email.

[Lord Scriven (LD)]

My Lords, it is a pleasure to follow the noble Lord, Lord Hayward. I wish to add my support to the comments that he made about the consolidation of election law. We are way behind the curve—the Minister is nodding—and we really need to look at the consolidation of electoral law.

I turn to this statutory instrument and thank the Minister for laying out the reasons behind it and its intention. Everybody wishes to reduce or completely stop the use of fraud in postal votes and stop people’s votes being stolen by others in our democracy. Some provisions in the regulations will help with that, such as those on political actors handling postal votes. However, I believe the main thrust of these regulations, which is about the handing in of postal votes at the polling station or electoral offices, is doomed to failure because it is impractical. I shall explain why and look forward to an answer.

Let us assume that I am a fraudster and I understand electoral law. I go out and harvest postal votes. I will know not to hand them in to the polling station—I will do it before election day—or to the electoral office. I will put them in a Royal Mail box. Will this statutory instrument achieve its number one aim of reducing electoral fraud? Practically, it can be circumvented just by putting the votes into a Royal Mail box. Let me show the Committee the stupidity of this through my city of Sheffield. I could go to the town hall, where within a couple of metres of the post box for the electoral office—just around the corner, probably 60 metres—there are two Royal Mail boxes. I would put my 100, 50 or 30 harvested postal votes into the Royal Mail box because why I got them or why I am handing them in will not be checked. It is completely outside the law. This will not stop the harvesting of postal votes and fraudulent people getting them back into the system.

It is also impractical for another reason. In the example I have just given in Sheffield, let us say that I am an upright citizen who believes in saving the taxpayer money. I decide to put in my one postal vote, which is my mother’s, but because I do it after the electoral office is closed my mother’s vote will not be counted, even though the 50 that have just been put into the post box around the corner by the harvester will be valid. I do not think that those who have drafted this statutory instrument understand the logistics of elections. What are the Minister’s and the Government’s views on that differential?

While I support the reduction of postal vote fraud, for those reasons I believe these regulations are flawed and impractical and will not have the desired effect. I look forward to hearing the answers from the Minister, which may alleviate my concerns, but I think that the regulations will not stop vote harvesters and that the votes of some people who genuinely cannot get to the polling station on the day or to an electoral office between nine and five will be invalid, simply because of the difference of a couple of metres in where somebody decides to hand in their postal ballot.

[Lord Shipley (LD)]

My Lords, I shall add one further issue that concerns me, partly from what the Minister said in his introduction and partly from my reading of the instrument. It relates to the definition of “political campaigner”. This appears several times in the statutory instrument. Is a person who is a friend of an independent candidate a political campaigner? The regulations permit an individual to hand in up to five postal votes of other voters at a polling station, but a political campaigner cannot handle a postal vote. Therefore, the definition of a “political campaigner” matters. Does it include a friend of a candidate who is independent of any political party? Is that person a political campaigner?

--- Later in debate ---

[Lord Mott (Con)]

Indeed. I would be happy to lay that out clearly in writing.

The noble Lord, Lord Scriven, asked probably the most interesting question of all. Overall, the legislation and changes are there to deter. We are obviously very aware of some of the problems that have occurred around the country in the past. We want to make sure that we strike the right balance between being mindful of security and keeping the electoral process accessible.

On the point the noble Lord highlighted, I suspect, if we are being honest, that we simply do not have the data available to say whether there are groups of people picking up bundles of 20 or 30 postal ballot papers and distributing them across different postboxes in a particular electoral area. The honest answer from me today has to be: let us see how the legislation develops in practice. If we believe there is a significant problem, as the noble Lord described, obviously we will need to look at that.

[Lord Scriven (LD)]

I do not think that was quite my question. I am trying to understand, as it is not apparent to me from reading the statutory instrument, why a postal vote pack posted in a Royal Mail box will be treated differently from, or even preferentially to, one posted on the same day in a council postal box, which could be a couple of metres away from each other.

[Lord Mott (Con)]

I will have to come back to the noble Lord on that in more detail. The point he made earlier concerns me. The potential for a bundle of ballot packs to be collected up and put through a door or letterbox is something that we really need to look at. I will take it away and look at it in more detail, and I will certainly come back to the noble Lord.