Recommendation 17

The Government presented to the Committee a case that there is underreporting of personation at UK elections. While the Government refused to be drawn on how extensive it believes the underreporting has been, it has implied that it is at a significant enough level to justify introducing a compulsory voter ID requirement. What is clear is that there is currently no evidence of widespread personation at UK elections, though we note the former responsible Minister’s observation that cases of electoral fraud are likely underreported, so that nobody can be sure that the reported number of cases accurately reflects the true scale of fraud being carried out. It is surprising and concerning that the Government has considered there to be a significant issue with the UK’s elections system and has not endeavoured to seek out and present substantial evidence of those concerns. The research done to provide evidence to support this policy proposal has simply not been good enough. Given the Government’s conviction on this issue, Ministers should have presented a more robust evidence base.