Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what the implications are for the Government's policies of recommendation 8 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 absolute requirement to count unused ballot papers as part of the verification process and to replace it with a requirement to do so only where the Returning Officer considers it appropriate.

We consider elections processes and policy on an ongoing basis, and we work with the Association of Electoral Administrators, the Society of Local Authority Chief Executives and Electoral Commission to consider the development and improvement of existing processes, including in relation to the procedures for the counting of votes at elections.