2000 Chapter 2

© Crown Copyright 2000

Explanatory Notes to Acts of the UK Parliament are subject to Crown Copyright protection. They may be reproduced free of charge provided that they are reproduced accurately and that the source and copyright status of the material is made evident to users.

It should be noted that the right to reproduce the text of these Explanatory Notes does not extend to the Queen's Printer imprints which should be removed from any copies of the Explanatory Notes which are issued or made available to the public. This includes reproduction of the Notes on the internet and on intranet sites. The Royal Arms may be reproduced only where they are an integral part of the original document.

The text of this Internet version of the Explanatory Notes which is published by the Queen's Printer of Acts of Parliament has been prepared to reflect the text in printed form and as published by The Stationery Office Limited as the Explanatory Notes to the Representation of the People Act 2000, ISBN  0105602000. The print version may be purchased by clicking here. Braille copies of the Explanatory Notes can also be purchased at the same price as the print edition by contacting TSO Customer Services on 0870 600 5522 or e-mail:customer.services@tso.co.uk.

Further information about the publication of legislation on this website can be found by referring to the Frequently Asked Questions.

To ensure fast access over slow connections, large documents have been segmented into "chunks". Where you see a "continue" button at the bottom of the page of text, this indicates that there is another chunk of text available.

These notes refer to the Representation of the People Act 2000
which received Royal Assent on 9 March 2000 (c. 2)

REPRESENTATION OF THE PEOPLE ACT 2000

EXPLANATORY NOTES

INTRODUCTION

1. These explanatory notes relate to the Representation of the People Act which received Royal Assent on 9 March 2000. They have been prepared by the Home Office in order to assist the reader in understanding the Act. They do not form part of the Act and have not been endorsed by Parliament.

2. These notes need to be read in conjunction with the Act. They are not, and are not meant to be, a comprehensive description of the Act. So where a section or part of a section does not seem to require any explanation or comment, none is given.

SUMMARY

3. The Act changes electoral procedures in relation to electoral registration and absent voting and allows for experiments involving innovative electoral procedures.

4. It also makes some miscellaneous changes to electoral law to make it easier for the disabled to vote and to create an offence of supplying false particulars on a nomination form.

5. It allows candidates in the first election for the Mayor of London to include an election address in a booklet to be delivered on behalf of the Greater London returning officer.

BACKGROUND

6. The Working Party on Electoral Procedures, a group chaired by the then Home Office Minister, George Howarth, and containing representatives from the main political parties, local government and electoral administrators, published its final report on 19 October 1999 - House of Commons Official Report, col WA434 (though it had published its summary recommendations in July of that year).

7. The Act gives effect to the Working Party's recommendations.

8. Those recommendations fall into several main categories.

9. The Working Party recommended the introduction of a scheme of "rolling" electoral registration to enable people to be added to (and deleted from) the electoral register at any time of the year rather than making registration contingent on residence on a single annual qualifying date.

10. The Working Party recommended changes to electoral registration rules to make it easier for the homeless, remand prisoners, people in mental institutions and service personnel to register. The Working Party recommended that the homeless, remand prisoners and mental patients should be able to register by means of a "declaration of locality", that is a statement that they have a significant link with a locality.

11. Under the existing law, remand prisoners are entitled to vote but should they be in prison on the electoral registration qualifying date are unable to register. The Working Party recommended that remand prisoners should be entitled to register by means of a declaration of locality, in respect of the address at which they were previously living or in respect of the institution at which they are held. The Working Party did not recommend extending the franchise to convicted prisoners.

12. The Working Party recommended that those in mental institutions, whether voluntary or detained patients (other than those detained as a consequence of criminal acts), should be able to register by means of a declaration of locality, in respect of the institution in which they are resident or in respect of the address where they would otherwise be living.

13. The Working Party recommended that members of the armed forces, and their families, should be able to register at their home addresses rather than solely by means of a service declaration.

14. The Working Party recommended that, in order to comply with data protection principles and the EU Data Protection Directive, the public should be informed as to the uses to which the electoral register might be put and allowed to opt out of being included in the register that is available for sale. A full version of the register would still be produced and used for electoral and law enforcement purposes and made available for local inspection.

15. In relation to absent voting the Working Party recommended that applications not on the standard form or made by fax should be acceptable, that an application for an absent vote at a particular election should apply to all elections on the same day and that the grounds for late applications should be widened to include family bereavement or illness or unforeseen employment commitments. The Working Party also recommended that it should be possible to return postal votes to a polling station and that postal votes should be treated as valid even if not returned in the official envelope, or if the ballot paper and declaration of identity were returned separately.

16. The Working Party recommended that returning officers should be given discretion to replace lost or spoilt postal ballot papers and to issue them other than by post. It also recommended that a postal vote should be available to anyone who applied for one without having to satisfy any particular criteria.

17. The Working Party recommended that pilot schemes of innovative electoral procedures - such as weekend voting, electronic voting, early voting, mobile polling stations - should be run so that their effectiveness could be evaluated and that the successful ones should be rolled out more widely.

18. The Working Party recommended that large print versions of the ballot paper should be displayed in polling stations and that templates should be available to assist blind and partially sighted voters. It also recommended that the facility to be assisted by a companion should be extended from blind voters to other categories of voters who would benefit from it.

19. The creation of an offence of supplying false particulars on a nomination form does not arise from a recommendation of the Working Party. Rather, it is a response to the realisation that candidates who do supply false particulars are not, under the existing law, committing an offence.

THE ACT

20. Sections 1-9 and Schedules 1-3 deal with electoral registration. Section 1 sets up a new system of registration while sections 2-7 deal with who may (and may not) be registered and how they may go about becoming registered. Section 9 deals with access to, and sale of, the electoral register.

21. Sections 10 and 11 concern pilot schemes of innovative electoral procedures and the application of innovative procedures more widely.

22. Section 12 and Schedule 4 deal with absent voting.

23. Section 13 is concerned with facilities to enable the disabled to vote.

24. Section 14 and Schedule 5 are concerned with the free delivery of election addresses at Greater London Authority elections.

25. Sections 15-17 deal with financial provisions and the Act's commencement and extent.

COMMENTARY ON SECTIONS

Section 1: New System of Electoral Registration

26. Section 1 replaces sections 1, 2 and 4 of the Representation of the People Act 1983. Sections 1 and 2 set out who is entitled to vote but do so by reference to a single annual qualifying date. Since this Act introduces "rolling" electoral registration this is no longer appropriate. Section 4 defines the qualifying date and will therefore be redundant in its present form.

27. Subsection (1) (which inserts the replacement sections 1 and 2) sets out the requirements for voting in parliamentary and local government elections. This Act does not alter the franchise (except in relation to offenders detained in mental hospitals (see section 2) and, indirectly, non-qualifying Commonwealth citizens (see paragraph 29 below)). This subsection also re-enacts prohibitions against double voting.

28. Subsection (2) (which inserts the replacement section 4) deals with entitlement to registration. It provides that a person is entitled to be registered if on the relevant date he is resident in the area concerned, is not subject to a legal incapacity, meets the nationality requirement and is of voting age (or will shortly attain voting age).

29. In order to be registered a Commonwealth citizen must be a qualifying Commonwealth citizen. Qualifying is defined for these purposes as being a person who does not require leave under the Immigration Act 1971 to enter or remain in the United Kingdom or who does require such leave and has been granted it or is treated as having been granted it.

30. "Relevant date" is for these purposes defined (by new section 4(6)) as the date on which an application for registration is made or, as the case may be, the date on which an application to register in respect of a declaration of local connection or service declaration is made (declarations of local connection are introduced by section 6).

31. The effect of these provisions is that a person may be eligible to be registered as an elector at any point in the year rather than by reference to a single annual qualifying date.

Section 2: Disfranchisement of Offenders Detained in Mental Hospitals

32. This section disfranchises those who are detained in mental institutions as a consequence of criminal activity. It inserts a new section to follow section 3 of the Representation of the People Act 1983.

33. Subsection (1) of the new section provides that a person who is detained (or who would be detained but for being unlawfully at large) under the enactments listed in the section may not vote in parliamentary or local government elections.

34. Subsections (2)-(7) list the enactments under which people may be detained in England and Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland and which are covered by the new section. The enactments fall into two principal categories:

a) enactments under which the courts may make orders providing for the detention in hospital of people suffering from mental illness who have been convicted of a criminal offence or in respect of whom findings have been made that they did the act with which they were charged; and

b) enactments under which people serving sentences of imprisonment who are found to be suffering from mental illness may be transferred to hospital.

Section 3: Residence for the Purposes of Registration: General

35. Section 3 replaces section 5 of the Representation of the People Act 1983 and sets out the factors which registration officers must take into account when considering whether a person should be treated as resident.

36. New section 5(2) provides that in determining this question attention must be paid to the purpose and other circumstances, as well as the fact of, a person's presence or absence on the relevant date.

37. The subsection provides that a person who is staying somewhere other than on a permanent basis may be regarded as resident if he does not have a home elsewhere.

38. New section 5(3) (which largely replicates the existing section 5(2)) provides that temporary absence for employment reasons should not be treated as interrupting residence if the person concerned intends to resume residence within six months or the address in question is a permanent residence where the person concerned would otherwise be living.

39. New section 5(5) provides that section 5(3) applies also to those who are absent by virtue of attendance at an educational establishment.

Section 4: Residence: Mental Patients who are not Detained Offenders

40. Section 4 is designed to enable those who are in mental hospitals, whether as detained or voluntary patients (other than those who are barred from voting by the provisions inserted by section 2), to register. The requirement for voluntary patients to make a patient's declaration is removed.

41. The section replaces the existing section 7 of the Representation of the People Act 1983 with a new section 7 which has the result that a person who is resident in a mental hospital can register in respect of the hospital if the period he is likely to spend there is sufficient for him to be regarded as resident (see section 3 above). Such registrations will last for a maximum of 12 months.

42. A person to whom new section 7 applies may alternatively register at some other address (which is likely to be the address where he would be living but for the fact of being in a mental hospital) or by means of a declaration of local connection (see section 6 below).

Section 5: Residence: Persons Remanded in Custody etc.

43. Section 5 is designed to make it easier for those who are being held on remand to register. Remand prisoners (though not convicted prisoners) currently have the right to vote but if they happen to be in prison at the time of the annual registration qualification date they cannot register and are therefore effectively disfranchised.

44. This section inserts a new section 7A into the Representation of the People Act 1983 which provides that a person who is on remand can register in respect of the establishment where he is held if the period he is likely to spend there is sufficient for him to be regarded as resident (see section 3 above). Such registrations will last for a maximum of 12 months. The new section 7A also applies to certain categories of people committed to mental hospitals.

45. A person to whom new section 7A applies may alternatively register at some other address (which is likely to be the address where he would be living but for the fact of being on remand) or by means of a declaration of local connection (see section 6 below).

Section 6: Notional Residence: Declarations of Local Connection

46. This section introduces a new concept, to be known as a declaration of local connection. It inserts new sections 7B and 7C into the Representation of the People Act 1983.

47. New subsections 7B(1) and (2) provide that such declarations may be made by patients in mental hospitals (other than those detained as a consequence of criminal activity), remand prisoners and the homeless.

48. New subsections 7B(3) and (4) require a declaration to give the declarant's name, an address for correspondence to be sent to (or an undertaking to collect such correspondence from the electoral registration office) and the date of the declaration, to state that the declarant falls into one of the categories permitted to make a declaration of local connection and to set out the category into which the declarant falls.

49. In the case of mental patients and remand prisoners the declaration must give the name of the institution where the person is living/held on remand and the address where he would be living were he not a patient or remand prisoner or, if he cannot provide that, an address in the United Kingdom where he has lived at any time.

50. The declaration of a homeless person must give the address of, or nearest to, a place where the person spends a substantial part of his time.

51. All declarations must also state that the person conforms to nationality requirements and is 18 or (if not) state the person's date of birth.

52. New subsection 7B(5) provides that a declaration of local connection made for the purpose of registration in Northern Ireland must state that the declarant has been resident in Northern Ireland for the preceding three months. This is consistent with the existing electoral law in Northern Ireland.

53. New subsection 7B(6) provides that where a declaration of local connection is made for the purpose of registration in the relevant area by a homeless person during the period between a seat in the House of Commons, Scottish Parliament or Welsh Assembly becoming vacant and the closing date for nominations, the declaration must state that, during the previous three months, the declarant has spent a substantial part of his time at or near the address to be used for registration purposes.

54. New subsection 7B(7) provides that declarations of local connection made for the purposes of parliamentary elections will also apply for local government elections but that those entitled to vote only in local elections (peers and EU citizens other than from the UK and Ireland) may make a declaration for the purposes of local government elections only.

55. New subsections 7C(1) and (2) enable a person who has made a declaration of local connection to apply for registration by treating him as being resident at the address he has given, and provide that such registration will be valid for 12 months unless cancelled or superseded.

Section 7: Service Declarations

56. This section repeals the provisions in section 12(3) and (4) of the Representation of the People Act 1983 which provide that those with a service qualification can only register by means of a service declaration. Those with service qualifications will still be entitled to register by means of a service declaration but this section will mean that they have the additional option of registering in the same way as other voters (provided that they meet the residence criteria set out in section 3) or as overseas electors.

Section 8: Further Amendments about Registration

57. Section 8 introduces Schedules 1, 2 and 3 to the Act.

Section 9: Supply of Information Contained in the Register

58. This section allows regulations to be made regulating the supply of the electoral register. It substitutes new paragraphs 10 and 11 of Schedule 2 to the Representation of the People Act 1983 (subsection (2)).

59. New paragraph 10 of Schedule 2 to the Representation of the People Act 1983 allows regulations to be made requiring registration officers to produce two versions of the electoral register - a complete one and an edited version omitting the names of those who have asked to have their names excluded from it.

60. The regulations can also specify how the registration officer should go about ascertaining who wishes to be excluded from the edited version and the words to be used to explain what the full and edited versions might be used for.

61. New paragraph 10A of Schedule 2 allows regulations to be made to require the full register to be available for public inspection.

62. New paragraph 10B of Schedule 2 allows regulations to be made which require registration officers to supply copies of the full register to prescribed people, either free of charge or on payment of a fee, or to supply copies of the edited register to anyone on payment of a fee. It also allows for regulations to be made specifying the uses which those who receive copies of the full register, and their employees and associates, may make of them.

63. New paragraph 11 of Schedule 2 allows regulations to be made to prohibit those inspecting the full register from making copies of it and those to whom the full register has been supplied, or to whom information from the full register may be disclosed, from passing it on or using it for purposes other than those for which it was supplied. It also allows regulations to be made imposing similar restrictions on those responsible for the preparation of the register.

64. Subsection (3) allows regulations to be made creating an offence (punishable by a fine up to level 5 on the standard scale of fines) of contravening regulations made under new paragraph 11 of Schedule 2. It is also an offence, where such a contravention has occurred on the part of an employee, for a director or manager of the company to have failed to take the necessary steps to put in place procedures designed to prevent such contraventions.

Section 10: Pilot Schemes

65. This section allows the Secretary of State to make orders enabling local authorities in England and Wales to run pilot schemes of innovative electoral procedures at particular local government elections.

66. Under subsection (1) a local authority must submit their proposals to the Secretary of State who will, if he approves them (with or without such modifications as he considers appropriate after consulting the authority), make the necessary order to allow the pilot to take place.

67. Subsection (2) provides that pilot schemes may make provision which differs from the normal provision made by or under the Representation of the People Acts in relation to when, where and how voting takes place, how votes are counted and the sending of elections addresses by candidates free of postal charges.

68. Subsection (3) provides that pilot schemes may make provision for voting to take place over more than one day and at places other than polling stations. Pilot schemes may also allow for the local authority concerned to meet the postage costs of the distribution of candidates' election addresses, in which case the order providing for the pilot scheme may disapply the rules in section 75 of the Representation of the People Act 1983 dealing with third party expenditure.

69. Subsection (4) enables a pilot scheme to be run across the whole of a local authority's area or only in some parts of it.

70. Subsection (5) provides that where the Secretary of State makes an order for implementing a pilot scheme he must send a copy of the order to the local authority concerned, which must publish it in their area.

71. Subsections (6)-(10) deal with evaluation of pilot schemes. A local authority running a pilot are required to produce a report on the scheme.

72. The report must include details of the scheme together with a copy of the order authorising it made by the Secretary of State.

73. The report must also include an assessment of the scheme in facilitating voting and (if relevant) the counting process or in encouraging voting or enabling voters to make informed decisions. The report about voting must include a statement as to whether in the local authority's opinion:

- turnout was higher than it would otherwise have been,

- voters found the new arrangements easy to use,

- the new procedures led to any increase in personation or other electoral fraud,

- the procedures led to an increase or to savings in expenditure.

74. The report must also include an assessment of any other matters that the Secretary of State has requested should be included in the report.

75. The report must be completed and sent to the Secretary of State within three months from the day on which the election results are declared, and the local authority must also publish the report in their area.

76. Subsection (11) defines the local authorities in England and Wales which may apply to run pilot schemes.

77. Subsection (12) has the effect that an application to run a pilot scheme submitted to the Secretary of State before this Act received Royal Assent is to be treated in the same fashion as those submitted after that point.

Section 11: Revision of Procedures in the Light of Pilot Schemes

78. This section is concerned with the rolling out of innovations that have been successfully piloted.

79. Subsection (1) enables the Secretary of State to make an order providing for an innovation which has been piloted to apply generally and permanently to local elections in England and Wales. Such an order can modify or disapply any provision of primary legislation in relation to the elections to which it will apply.

80. Subsections (2) and (5) provide that an order may exempt particular local government areas from its provisions (and, if it does so, will not be treated as a hybrid instrument for Parliamentary purposes) but, otherwise, must make the same provision throughout England and Wales for all the elections that it relates to.

81. Subsections (3) and (4) provide that an order must be made by statutory instrument which needs to be approved by both Houses of Parliament, and that when laying such an order the Secretary of State must also lay copies of the evaluation report of the relevant pilot scheme(s).

82. Subsection (5) provides that rules made under section 36 of the Representation of the People Act 1983 may make such provision as the Secretary of State considers necessary in connection with any order rolling out a pilot scheme.

83. Subsection (7) provides that nothing in section 11 prejudices the powers contained in other Acts to make secondary legislation relating to elections.

Section 12: Changes Relating to Absent Voting in Great Britain

84. This section is concerned with the arrangements for absent voting.

85. Subsection (1) introduces Schedule 4 which applies to England, Scotland and Wales as regards both parliamentary and local government elections.

86. Subsection (2) repeals sections 5 to 9 of the Representation of the People Act 1985 in relation to England, Scotland and Wales as those provisions are replaced for those countries by the provisions of Schedule 4. Those provisions will, however, continue to govern absent voting in Northern Ireland in connection with parliamentary elections.

87. Subsection (3) ensures that any list or record held by a registration officer under the provisions of the Representation of the People Act 1985 that this section repeals - for example, the list of those entitled to cast absent votes - will remain in force.

Section 13: Assistance with Voting for Persons with Disabilities

88. This section is designed to make it easier for those with disabilities to cast votes. It does this by amending the parliamentary elections rules contained in Schedule 1 to the Representation of the People Act 1983.

89. New rule 29(3A) of the parliamentary elections rules provides that a returning officer must display a large print version of the ballot paper in each polling station and provide a device (the form of which will be prescribed in regulations) to assist blind and partially-sighted voters.

90. Blind voters are currently entitled to be assisted to cast their vote by a companion. New rule 39 of the parliamentary elections rules extends this facility to those with other physical disabilities or who are unable to read. The existing procedures and criteria as to who may be a companion are applied, though in future a declaration that a person falls into one of the categories of people who may be assisted by a companion may be made either orally or in writing.

Section 14: Free delivery of election addresses at Greater London Authority elections

91. Section 14 inserts a new section 17A into the Greater London Authority Act 1999.

92. Subsection (1) of the inserted section entitles each candidate at the first election for Mayor of London to have an election address included in a booklet of election addresses prepared by the Greater London returning officer. The Greater London returning officer must send the booklet by post to each elector (as defined by subsection (2)) in Greater London.

93. For future Greater London Authority elections, the Secretary of State is authorised by the inserted section 17A(3) to (6) to make by order (subject to affirmative procedure) such provision as he considers appropriate to enable candidates to have their election addresses delivered at the Greater London Authority's expense. Section 17A(4) specifies particular matters for which provision may be made in such an order. The Secretary of State must consult the Mayor and London Assembly before making an order.

94. Subsection (4) of section 14 introduces Schedule 5 (which contains the arrangements for the free delivery of election addresses at the first Mayoral election).