1 Introduction
The
problem
1. Democracy in the UK is working less well than
it used to and we need to move swiftly to pre-empt a crisis. Millions
of people are missing from the UK's electoral registers; at the
most recent estimate, 7.5 million people are not correctly registered
to vote. Many of those who are registered to vote—and in
many elections the majority—choose not to participate at
elections, be they for the UK Parliament, local government, or
the European Parliament. At the last general election almost 16
million registered voters, 34.9% of the electorate, chose not
to participate, more than voted for candidates of any one major
party. Include the number of people who are not correctly registered
to vote in this figure, and the number of people who did not participate
was greater than the number of votes cast for candidates of the
two largest parties, or of both of the Coalition parties. That
was the election which recorded the highest proportion of registered
voters—65.1%—turning out at any UK election to take
place in the 21st century—although turnout for
the recent Scottish independence referendum was 84.6%.
2. This is not a new problem, but it is one that
has gone unaddressed for too long. In a modern democracy, it is
unacceptable that millions of people who are eligible to vote
are missing from electoral registers. It is desirable in a representative
democracy for turnout at elections of all kinds to be higher—and
ideally far higher—than has been the case in recent years.
It is essential that the scale of the response is equal to the
task. Aside from these purely arithmetic measures of voter engagement,
there is clearly also a serious problem around disengagement from,
and dissatisfaction with, politics more broadly.
Our consultation on voter engagement
3. On 14 November 2014 we published an interim report
on voter engagement in the UK.[1]
This explored the reasons for current low levels of voter engagement
and considered how the problem could be addressed. Our interim
report reached 47 conclusions and made 35 recommendations, covering
a broad range of areas relevant to the question of voter engagement
in the UK. These included the structure of political parties,
public dissatisfaction with politics and politicians, where power
lies across the UK, arrangements for electoral registration and
the options available for voters to participate at elections.
The range and breadth of conclusions and recommendations indicate
the level of action we believe is necessary. The Government welcomed
our interim report and agreed with us that improving voter engagement
is vital to the long term well-being of democracy in the UK.[2]
The responses we received from the Conservatives, Labour, Liberal
Democrats and Greens also welcomed our interim report and the
work we had done on this subject.[3]
4. Our interim report dealt with some controversial
issues and considered several radical changes, such as making
voting compulsory and enabling people to vote online. We also
called on the Government and individual political parties to take
action to re-engage the electorate. So as to give the public the
opportunity to have a say on the proposals we have considered,
we put our interim report out for public consultation. To facilitate
this process, we have engaged with the public in a variety of
ways, including:
· Calling
for written responses to our interim report;[4]
· Promoting a
survey with questions on several of the proposals we are considering;[5]
· Holding an
informal meeting with youth groups;[6]
· Inviting the
views of party leaders,[7]
and
· Hosting an
informal chat on Twitter.[8]
5. Several of those who submitted evidence to us
did so on the basis of their own surveys, and these results have
been considered in addition to those we received directly.[9]
In total, we received over 100 pieces of written evidence, over
15,000 responses to our survey and other related surveys, dozens
of comments on social media and well over 100 pieces of correspondence.[10]
Our report has also been informed by research conducted by the
Hansard Society which, as part of its annual Audit of Political
Engagement, has asked members of the public which changes to electoral
arrangements they would support with a view to increasing participation
at elections.[11]
6. Many thousands of people have given us their
views on voter engagement. These responses are particularly important
to our deliberations on this subject, because the views of the
public must be central to any discussion around electoral arrangements.
It was for this reason we produced an interim report in November
2014, with a view to consulting the public before bringing forward
our final report. We are extremely grateful for all of the responses
we received, whether by e-mail, letter, social media, formal written
submission or survey response. These have been invaluable to informing
our deliberations and helping us refine the conclusions and recommendations
presented here.
7. As part of our consultation we wrote to the
leader of each party represented at the House of Commons asking
for their views on our interim report. We received responses from
the Conservatives, Labour, the Liberal Democrats and the Green
Party. These responses are extremely welcome, and we hope demonstrate
a commitment on the part of those parties to take improving voter
engagement seriously.
This report
8. The intention of this report is to set out the
responses we received during our consultation, and our revised
conclusions and recommendations where these have changed since
we produced our interim report. The areas where our conclusions
and recommendations have changed are mainly those where the response
to our consultation has indicated there is strong support for,
or opposition to, one of the proposals we considered. Where a
conclusion or recommendation from our interim report stands, we
have stated this.
1 Political and Constitutional Reform Committee, Fourth
Report of Session 2014-15, Voter engagement in the UK, HC 232 Back
2
Political and Constitutional Reform Committee, Fourth Special
Report of Session 2014-15, Voter engagement in the UK: Government
Response to the Committee's Fourth Report of Session 2014-15,
HC 1037, page 1 Back
3
Written evidence from Rt Hon Grant Shapps MP, Chairman of the
Conservative Party [PVE 116], Rt Hon Ed Miliband MP, Leader of
the Opposition [PVE 123], the Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Policy
Committee on Constitutional and Political Reform [PVE 106] and
the Green Party for England and Wales [PVE 96] Back
4
A full list of written submissions published by the Committee
is available on page 73. Back
5
The headline results of the survey are available on page 70 as
Annex 4, and the full data set of the Committee's survey results
has been published on our website here: PCRC survey results Back
6
A note of the informal meeting with youth groups is available
on page 65 as Annex 1. Back
7
The Committee received responses from Rt Hon Grant Shapps MP,
Chairman of the Conservative Party [PVE 116], Rt Hon Ed Miliband
MP, Leader of the Opposition [PVE 123], the Liberal Democrat Parliamentary
Policy Committee on Constitutional and Political Reform [PVE 106]
and the Green Party for England and Wales [PVE 96]. Back
8
A note of points raised on social media is available on page 69
as Annex 3. Back
9
Organisations to host surveys were Unlock Democracy [PVE 111],
Bite the Ballot [PVE 115], 38 Degrees [PVE 126] Back
10
A note of many of the points raised in correspondence to the Committee
is available on page 66 as Annex 2. Back
11
The results for the question asked by the Hansard Society are
available on page 71 as Annex 5. Back
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