Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how his Department plans to evaluate the postal vote pilots; what indicators will be used to measure the success of those pilots; what methods will be used to collect the information relating to those pilots; who will be responsible for implementing the evaluation plan; and how and when the results of that evaluation will be shared.

The British public deserves to have confidence in our democracy and the Government is committed to making sure that our electoral system is fit for the future.

Woking, Gosport, Bromley, Swindon and Watford have committed to pilot voter ID in May 2018 and Tower Hamlets, Slough and Peterborough are piloting measures to improve the security of the postal vote process.

The pilot authorities, Cabinet Office and the Electoral Commission have worked collaboratively to agree what information will be collected from the pilots and how it will be collected.

The Electoral Commission is responsible for carrying out an independent, statutory evaluation of the pilot schemes and will publish its findings following the May elections, in the summer of 2018.