Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what the implications are for the Government's policies of recommendation 7 of the report of the Association of Electoral Administrators entitled It’s time for urgent and positive Government action: The AEA’s review of the 2017 local government elections and the UK Parliamentary general election, published in September 2017, on the Government removing the requirement to commence the counting of the votes at a UK Parliamentary election within four hours of the close of poll where combined with another poll.

Combining polls can bring benefits in terms of enhancing voter participation and reducing cost. Overnight counts have been the norm in some UK elections for many years and the results of those elections have not been challenged on the grounds of an inefficient or unreliable count or inaccurate result. The Government also notes the cross-party views expressed by Parliament in 2010 to ‘save General Election night’ which resulted in explicit legislation to ensure overnight counts for general elections.