Written evidence from the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government (RGE 32 )[1]

Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee

Review of the 2024 general election inquiry

I would like to express my thanks for the opportunity to provide evidence before the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee on 18 March 2025.

I know that protecting our precious and vibrant democracy is something about which we all care very deeply, and I would like to thank you and the Committee members for the thoughtful questions and engagement during the session. I hope our evidence provided both a positive contribution toward the outcome of your inquiry into the 2024 UK Parliamentary General Election and demonstrated the Government’s commitment to safe and sustainable improvements for everyone concerned.

Following my appearance, I wanted to follow up on a couple of discussion points raised and provide some additional information:

Discussion point: What routes there are, not to initiate new policy, but which can stress test existing law and could bring together into one operational compendium. What other routes, either via Speaker’s Conference or the EC, to bring into one space the topic of how to run a general Election. (Page 18, Q201. committees.parliament.uk/oralevidence/15566/pdf/)

The Government recognises that electoral law is now underpinned by multiple pieces of legislation and that over many years, compound changes have led to some challenges for administrators. Although this is not an uncommon issue in areas of complex policy, we agree that this is an area which may benefit from further consideration in the longer term.

Our primary focus in this Parliament is delivering our pledges to reform our democracy by extending the franchise to 16- and 17-year-olds, reviewing and improving the voter ID rules, tightening political finance arrangements, improving voter registration and making practical and pragmatic changes to registration and electoral conduct supported by our strategic review. Consolidating and simplifying electoral law is a significant exercise that will take several years to complete. We will give careful consideration to this, but it is not something that can be concluded in this Parliament.

Discussion point: What is the arrangement for the civil servants who volunteer to help at polling stations during the general election? Are they redeployed from their existing civil servant position or are they paid in the same way as other people working in polling stations? Can we clarify payment and leave arrangements. (Page 20, Q204.

committees.parliament.uk/oralevidence/15566/pdf/)

For civil servants who volunteered to support the election at a time when they would ordinarily have been working in their paid civil service position, there were two ways of arranging time away from the office:

1.       Paid special leave and only accepting payment from Returning Officers (at the local authority where they were placed) for hours worked outside of their normal civil service hours; or
2.       Unpaid special leave and accepting payment from Returning Officers for the full period of time volunteered.

This approach is consistent with the Civil Service Management Code’s (CSMC) principle that civil servants should not be paid twice from the public purse for the same hours, as well as Returning Officers’ legal obligation to pay their electoral staff. By agreeing to either one of the two options, civil service volunteers committed to uphold this principle.

I trust this information is useful for your inquiry and I look forward to receiving the Committee’s report.

Once again, thank you and your Committee for your work on this important inquiry. I look forward to continuing working with you and the Committee in future.

March 2025