Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what plans he has to reform postal voting to protect against voter fraud.

The Government believes that electoral fraud is unacceptable on any level. The Government’s response to Sir Eric Pickles’ review, Securing the ballot, sets out a comprehensive programme of reform for strengthening our electoral system. Sir Eric’s review identified a number of areas where the system could be tightened, and the Government’s response sets out a number of measures for tackling postal voting fraud.

For example, the Government intends to seek legislative opportunities to extend the provisions on ballot secrecy, and the offences already in place for voting in person, to postal voting. We will also carefully consider the practical implications of introducing a ban on the handling of postal ballot papers by campaigners. These and other measures outlined in the Government’s response are an important part of ensuring that we can build a democracy that works for everyone.