Source · Select Committees · Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee
Recommendation 17
17
Acknowledged
Paragraph: 68
Although the Electoral Commission has an overall strong record in relation to monitoring, investigations and...
Conclusion
Although the Electoral Commission has an overall strong record in relation to monitoring, investigations and enforcement, we were concerned by the individual cases of extremely lengthy investigations and poor communication raised throughout this inquiry. The Electoral Commission has said it will factor in the conclusions from this inquiry into its updated Enforcement Policy, due for consultation in the coming months, and we expect the issues raised by these individuals to be considered. We welcome the reforms the Electoral Commission has set out to its regulatory approach to date, including mandatory case reviews if a case approaches six months in duration; new evidence trackers to aid disclosure of used evidence when proposing sanctions; accelerating the process of identifying and citing relevant evidence; and moving away from the practice of expanding existing cases when new potential offences arise. However, it is disappointing that the Electoral Commission has resisted calls to impose fixed time limits on investigations.
Government response summary AI-generated
The Government agrees it is important to resolve investigations within a reasonable time period and will continue to keep under review aligning the PPERA regime with the RPA regime.
Paragraph Reference:
68
Government Response
The government responded to this report on 19 January 2023. No passage in that response could be matched to this conclusion. Read the response document ↗