Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton South)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that UK elections are not affected by political interference by (a) China and (b) other countries.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
It is, and always will be, an absolute priority for this government to protect our democratic and electoral processes against foreign interference.
Last year, the Prime Minister established the Defending Democracy Taskforce to protect the democratic integrity of the UK from threats of foreign influence. Its mission is to reduce the risk to the UK’s democratic processes, institutions and society, and ensure that these are secure and resilient to threats of foreign interference.
In addition, the National Security Act 2023 creates a new offence of foreign interference. This will make it an offence to illegitimately influence the UK’s democratic processes and elected officials on behalf of a foreign power. The offence will also significantly increase sentences for electoral offences if they are carried out on behalf of a foreign power. Related measures in the Online Safety Bill will require digital platforms to proactively take action against a wide range of state-sponsored disinformation and state-linked online interference, including digitally manipulated content, where this has the aim of interfering with UK elections.
The Elections Act 2022 strengthened three important components of the political finance framework: fairness, transparency and controls against foreign spending. Since its introduction, the Government has restricted foreign campaign spending at elections and introduced a new requirement on political parties to declare their assets and liabilities over £500 upon registration. Foreign donations (and channelling foreign money) are already illegal. The Act also ensures greater transparency on digital campaigning, through the introduction of digital imprints.
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to protect upcoming UK elections from being influenced by AI-driven content.
Answered by Baroness Scott of Bybrook - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
It is, and will always be, an absolute priority to protect our democratic and electoral processes. The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology's Counter Disinformation Unit responds to periods of acute disinformation risk, including UK elections. The Unit does this by identifying harmful false narratives and working closely with the major social media platforms to encourage them to swiftly remove disinformation and coordinated inauthentic or manipulated behaviour, as per their Terms of Service.
The Elections Act 2022 introduced one of the most comprehensive 'digital imprint' regimes that operates in the word today. This new regime, once commenced, will increase the transparency of digital political campaigning; empowering citizens to make informed decisions on who is promoting political material online and on whose behalf.
Asked by: Andrew Bowie (Conservative - West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what recent assessment he has made of the safety and security of independent council candidates in the context of the requirement to provide a visible address on election literature in local authority elections.
Answered by Kemi Badenoch - President of the Board of Trade
Imprints are required on any printed election material, including that of independent candidates at local elections, to provide voters with the level of transparency they rightly expect about who is campaigning. The imprint requirement also supports the rules on campaign spending limits. The requirement to include an address as part of the imprint is important to enable the police and the courts to enforce the rules relating to candidate election material with legal certainty.
The safety of election campaigners and candidates is our utmost priority. For this reason, while candidates must use a postal address where they can be contacted, a range of addresses are permitted under the imprint rules. Therefore, candidates have alternative options if they feel uncomfortable publishing their home address on printed election material. As outlined in Electoral Commission guidance, this can be an office or business address. Candidates may also use a PO Box address or other mailbox service.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Hemsworth)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of introducing measures which extend the imprint rules to digital communications in order for digital campaign material to have an imprint saying who is behind the campaign and who created it.
Answered by Kemi Badenoch - President of the Board of Trade
Voters value transparency and that is why the Elections Bill introduces a digital imprints regime so that when voters engage with politics online they are clear who is promoting the campaign material and on whose behalf.
Reflecting positive feedback to the technical consultation Transparency in digital campaigning launched by the Cabinet Office last year, the digital imprints regime proposed as part of the Elections Bill will go much further than the current imprint rules for printed material, further increasing transparency and empowering voters to make informed decisions about the digital campaign material they are viewing online.
A digital imprint must include the name and address of the promoter of the material and the name and address of any person or organisation on behalf of whom the material is being promoted. Breaching the digital imprint rules will be an offence and the Electoral Commission and police will have shared responsibility for the enforcement of the regime.
Asked by: Rupa Huq (Labour - Ealing Central and Acton)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office, what assessment he has made of the potential effect of the proposed removal of prosecutorial powers from the Electoral Commission on the (a) accountability of the executive, (b) integrity of elections and (c) transparency of political party funding.
Answered by Chloe Smith
The Electoral Commission does not currently, and has never in over 20 years, brought criminal prosecutions. The Government intends to maintain the status quo by providing clarity in law that the Commission should not bring criminal prosecutions in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The proper place for criminal investigations and prosecutions relating to electoral law is with the police and the Crown Prosecution Service (and the Public Prosecution Service in Northern Ireland) who are experts in this domain. Having the Commission step into this space would risk wasting public money. The Electoral Commission will continue to have a wide range of investigatory and civil sanctioning powers available to it and, as is currently the case, is able to refer more serious matters to the police.
The Government is committed to protecting our democracy and ensuring that it remains secure, modern, transparent and fair. The Elections Bill will further strengthen the integrity of UK elections by updating electoral law, including the rules on the transparency of digital campaigning and political finance, the introduction of voter identification and measures improving the integrity of postal and proxy voting.
Asked by: Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle (Green Party - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to respond to the findings of the Electoral Reform Society's report, Democracy in the Dark: Digital Campaigning in the 2019 General Election and Beyond, published on 24 September, and in particular, the finding that online campaigning spend and non-party campaigning activity increased significantly, although in an undocumented manner, during the 2019 general election campaign.
Answered by Lord True - Leader of the House of Lords and Lord Privy Seal
The Government is taking forward a programme of work that will strengthen and update the UK’s electoral regulation to ensure it is fit for the modern age; provides a robust framework for campaign finance; and supports public confidence in our processes.
Political parties, registered third parties and candidates are already required to report expenses that qualify as electoral expenditure and this includes digital campaigning. We have launched a consultation on digital imprints which will require political parties, campaigners and others to clearly show who they are when promoting campaign content online.
Across all of this work the intention is to improve transparency to ensure voters can make informed choices, and to enforce spending rules.
Asked by: Owen Thompson (Scottish National Party - Midlothian)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office, what assessment he has made for the implications of his policies of the Electoral Reform Society’s Democracy in the Dark: Digital Campaigning in the 2019 General Election and Beyond report.
Answered by Chloe Smith
The Government is committed to upholding and protecting the integrity of elections. We are taking forward a programme of work that will strengthen and update the UK’s electoral regulation to ensure it is fit for the modern age; provides a robust framework for campaign finance; and supports public confidence in our processes.
We have already launched a consultation on digital imprints which will require political parties, campaigners and others to clearly show who they are when promoting campaign content online. We continue to work closely with social media companies, and welcome steps they have taken to improve transparency.
Across all of this work the intention is to improve transparency to ensure voters can make informed choices, and to enforce spending rules that ensure an even playing field. Policy or political arguments which can be rebutted by rival campaigners or an independent free press as part of the normal course of political debate are not regulated.The Government does not support creating a regime which would seek to police the accuracy or truthfulness of content.
Asked by: Owen Thompson (Scottish National Party - Midlothian)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office, what plans he has to implement the ten key recommendations of the Electoral Reform Society’s Democracy in the Dark: Digital Campaigning in the 2019 General Election and Beyond report.
Answered by Chloe Smith
The Government is committed to upholding and protecting the integrity of elections. We are taking forward a programme of work that will strengthen and update the UK’s electoral regulation to ensure it is fit for the modern age; provides a robust framework for campaign finance; and supports public confidence in our processes.
We have already launched a consultation on digital imprints which will require political parties, campaigners and others to clearly show who they are when promoting campaign content online. We continue to work closely with social media companies, and welcome steps they have taken to improve transparency.
Across all of this work the intention is to improve transparency to ensure voters can make informed choices, and to enforce spending rules that ensure an even playing field. Policy or political arguments which can be rebutted by rival campaigners or an independent free press as part of the normal course of political debate are not regulated.The Government does not support creating a regime which would seek to police the accuracy or truthfulness of content.
Asked by: Amber Rudd (Independent - Hastings and Rye)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office, what plans the Government has to implement the recommendations of the Electoral Commission's 2018 report, entitled Digital campaigning: increasing transparency for voters, on the transparency of (a) political online advertising, (b) costs from political parties and (c) sources of campaign funding.
Answered by Chloe Smith
Our current election process is robust and the Government is committed to increasing transparency in digital campaigning to maintain a fair and proportionate democratic process. The Cabinet Office has announced a range of measures to better safeguard UK elections against any potential intimidation, malign influence, interference and disinformation.
This included commitments to launch a consultation on electoral integrity and implement a digital imprints regime for online election material.
The consultation may consider recommendations for further increasing transparency on digital political advertising; closing potential loopholes on foreign spending in elections; and preventing shell companies from sidestepping the current rules on political finance.
Asked by: Patrick Grady (Scottish National Party - Glasgow North)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if he will issue a response to the recommendations published by FullFact on 12 April 2019 on reform of electoral laws governing online campaigning.
Answered by Kevin Foster
The Government is committed to increasing transparency in digital campaigning. On 5 May 2019, the Government announced that candidates, political parties and non-party campaigners will be required to brand or ‘imprint’ their digital election materials, so the public is clear who is targeting them. The Government will bring forward the technical proposal for this regime later on this year.
Whilst there are no current plans for a database of online political adverts, we are encouraging action to increase transparency of wider political advertising online. Several social media companies have already implemented tools to enhance transparency about the origins of political and electoral adverts on their platforms, including political advert libraries. However, these efforts have been inconsistent and the Government is clear that more could be done. As such, the Online Harms White Paper, published on 8 April 2019, proposes that under the new online safety regulatory framework platforms could be required to improve transparency of political advertising, as part of their duty of care to protect their users from disinformation.