Status: We are conducting a scoping exercise as a preliminary stage to proposing reform to the law governing electoral administration. We plan to open a consultation on the scope of this project in early summer 2012
Elections are the principal mechanism by which citizens exercise their rights over those who govern in their name. The law governing the administration of elections should therefore meet the expectations reasonably required of it by citizens.
That, unfortunately, cannot necessarily be said of the current legal framework for electoral administration. The current law is spread between some 25 major statutes, such that the law is overly complex, inaccessible and frequently includes unnecessary duplications.
The overall aim of the project is to ensure that the law governing elections is modern, and meets the expectations rightly demanded of it by citizens.
The project
Owing to the nature of the subject matter, which is UK wide, this project is joint with the Scottish Law Commission and the Northern Ireland Law Commission.
This project is split into three phases, with review points between phases. The first phase will be the scoping exercise, incorporating a consultation phase. The consultation period will be in the second half of 2012; a scoping report will be published at the end of that year.
Next steps
If, after scoping, both the Commission and Government decide to move to a substantive project, we aim to produce a detailed consultation paper after the May 2014 elections and finalise our substantive law reform recommendations in mid-2015. There would then be a further review point. If both Commission and Government decide to continue with the project, we aim to publish a final report and bill in early 2017.
