Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what assessment the Government has made of the cost-effectiveness of implementing a voter ID scheme throughout the UK.

The Government is committed to making sure that our electoral system is fit for the future. Vulnerabilities cannot be allowed to undermine the integrity of our democracy.

As part of the Government’s manifesto commitment to ensure that a form of identification must be presented before voting, five voter ID pilots took place at the local elections on 3 May 2018. In order for us to have a deeper understanding of how voter ID will work on a wider scale and what works best for voters, we plan to continue to pilot voter ID at next year’s local elections.

Part of our evaluation of the 2018 pilots and that of the Electoral Commission has been to understand the cost impact of voter ID. That analysis will be developed further when voter ID is piloted in 2019 and will help to inform decisions on voter ID in the future and ensure its cost effectiveness.