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

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage on 3 November (HL11135), whether they will take into consideration the burden that monitoring the proposed pilots of flexible voting methods at the May 2026 elections in England will impose on police forces when selecting the local authorities to carry out those pilots.

The Government is exploring ways to make voting in person more efficient, more convenient, and better aligned with the expectations of today’s electors.

Local authorities were invited to submit applications to pilot a range of flexible voting methods at the May 2026 elections in England. We are working with individual local authorities to shape the detail of their flexible voting pilots. We will continue to work with key stakeholders and local authorities throughout development and delivery of the pilots.

We are currently reviewing applications from local authorities wishing to pilot at the May 2026 elections and we will share further details in due course.