Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, with reference to paragraph 114 of the policy paper entitled Restoring trust in our democracy: Our strategy for modern and secure elections, published on 17 July 2024, what types of information could be shared through the Electoral Commission's statutory gateway that it cannot currently (a) send and (b) accept.

The Electoral Commission currently lacks an explicit statutory gateway to share information with other regulators and enforcement authorities. At present, the Commission relies on other organisations’ statutory gateways or Memorandums of Understanding when sharing information, making routine information-sharing burdensome. The Government therefore intends to provide the Commission with an explicit statutory gateway to enable it to share information with certain regulators and enforcement authorities, for the purpose of assisting relevant bodies in carrying out their statutory functions.

This will provide a solid legal foundation for the Electoral Commission to share information on cross-cutting issues such as foreign interference or data protection, nurturing a more collaborative and effective regulatory environment. Any disclosures will remain subject to UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018. Alongside other proposals in the Elections Strategy, we will legislate to bring forward this measure as soon as parliamentary time allows.