Question

To ask the hon. Member for South West Devon, representing the Speaker's Committee on the Electoral Commission, if the Commission will extend eligibility for emergency proxy votes to healthy people who are unable to vote because they need to be with a family member who is undergoing medical treatment.

The eligibility criteria for emergency proxy votes are set out in legislation, and are therefore a matter for the UK and Scottish governments and their respective parliaments.

The Electoral Commission continues to recommend that the UK and Scottish governments should extend the eligibility criteria for appointing an emergency proxy to include those who have unforeseen caring responsibilities or who have experienced the death of a close relative, and will reiterate this recommendation in its report on the May 2015 elections.