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Call To Scrap UK Voter ID Requirements

17th November 2024

Requirements for voter identification brought in by the previous UK Government should be scrapped, the Minister for Parliamentary Business for the Scottish Government has said.

Jamie Hepburn has highlighted evidence from the Electoral Commission that the new requirements kept potential voters away from the ballot box at the recent UK Parliamentary election, and fears misunderstanding around the need for ID could have a similar impact in Scotland.

In a letter to Rushanara Ali MP, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government), he asked for the UK Government to consider scrapping voter ID requirements.

Letter from Minister for Parliamentary Business Jamie Hepburn to Rushanara Ali MP, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government).

To: Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)

From: Minister for Parliamentary Business
Voter ID

I understand that following a reshuffle of Ministerial responsibilities within your department you have assumed the lead on elections from Alex Norris MP. I recently had a very constructive meeting with Mr Norris, in which we discussed a range of elections topics, and I look forward to meeting you soon, and to working together on areas of shared interest to voters across the United Kingdom.

One matter that Mr Norris and I agreed on is to reconvene as soon as possible the Inter-Ministerial Group on Elections and Registration, which provides a particularly useful forum to discuss issues of common interest across the four nations. I look forward to meeting you at that, and to discussions with Ministerial colleagues from across all Governments.

In the meantime, I note that MPs will vote next Wednesday 13 November on changes the UK Government has brought forward to expand the list of IDs which can be used at UK Parliamentary elections to include the Scottish National Entitlement Card and the HM Forces Identity Card. While these additions are welcome, I continue to be concerned about the impact that the previous UK Government's introduction of Voter ID has had on voters at UK General Elections.

The Electoral Commission’s recent report on voter ID at the 2024 General Election raised several issues of concern. Of particular note is the finding that 4% of people who said they did not vote at the election stated their decision was related to the voter ID requirement. This confirms the view expressed by the Scottish Government, and others at the time of the changes, that it did indeed discourage some people from voting. The Commission also noted that of the people who tried to vote at a polling station, 0.08% were not able to because of the ID requirement. Although these numbers are small, anyone losing a vote is of concern, and furthermore no one knows how many did not vote due to not having relevant ID, or not knowing if they did. Tellingly, turnout on 4th July was 59.8%; down from 67.3% in 2019.

You will be aware that the Scottish Government has not introduced voter ID for Scottish Parliament and local government elections. We remain strongly opposed to it and concerned about its impact on democracy by creating an unnecessary barrier to voting and disenfranchising some of our citizens. Furthermore, we are left with a concern that if voters in the Scottish Parliament election in May 2026 have the impression that voter ID is required for that election (even though it is not), they may be discouraged from voting. I have raised that concern directly with the Electoral Commission and I hope they will be able to mitigate it to some extent with their public awareness campaigns in the run up to the 2026 election.

Of course, the best way of mitigating that particular concern and more fundamentally of removing those barriers to participation in the democratic process is for the Voter ID requirements to be scrapped. I hope this is something you might consider proposing as a policy change to your colleagues in the UK Government.

I look forward to discussing this and other matters when we meet.

JAMIE HEPBURN



From The Electoral Commission
Summary
Most people were aware of the need to bring ID to vote at a polling station
Our research found that, immediately after polling day, 87% of people in Great Britain were aware that they needed to show photo ID to vote at a polling station. In comparison, 89% of people were aware in Northern Ireland, where the requirement to show photo ID has been in place since 2003.
The levels of awareness of the need to show photo ID were broadly consistent across the different parts of Great Britain - 87% in England, 90% in Scotland, 89% in Wales.
While overall awareness levels were high, some groups of people were significantly less likely to know about the requirement. Awareness was lower among younger age groups (71% for 18 to 24-year-olds) and people from ethnic minority communities (76%).
This means that some people may not have known that they needed to show ID until they arrived at the polling station. Those people who did not have any of the accepted forms of ID could not get ID (for example the Voter Authority Certificate) on polling day itself.
Awareness and take-up of the Voter Authority Certificate was too low
Approximately 210,000 people applied for a Voter Authority Certificate between January 2023, when the application service launched, and 26 June 2024, which was the application deadline for the UK general election. Around 26,000 certificates were used as a form of ID on 4 July.
Awareness of the Voter Authority Certificate was the same among the overall population and among those who said they did not already have photo ID (58% and 57% respectively).
The overall number of Voter Authority Certificates applied for was low compared with the estimated number of eligible, registered voters who might need it and not have any other accepted ID (around 750,000).
0.08% of people who tried to vote at a polling station were not able to because of the ID requirement
Data collected in polling stations shows that 0.08% of people who tried to vote at a polling station were not issued with a ballot paper because they did not have an accepted form of ID. 0.25% of people who tried to vote at a polling station in the UK general election were initially turned away, but around two-thirds of those people returned later in the day with an accepted form of ID and were able to vote.
This means that one in 1,200 voters who tried to vote at a polling station were not given a ballot paper at the UK general election due to the ID requirement. In comparison, at the first elections with voter ID in May 2023, the equivalent figure was one in 400 (0.25%).
In absolute numbers, around 16,000 people across Great Britain were unable to vote in person at the general election due to the requirement to show ID at a polling station. This compares to 14,000 in England at the May 2023 elections.
The percentage of voters at polling stations who were not issued with a ballot paper because they could not show an accepted form of voter ID varied only slightly between England (0.08%), Scotland (0.09%) and Wales (0.07%). Polling stations with greeters recorded a slightly lower proportion of people turned away (0.07%) compared to those without greeters (0.08%).
These figures capture the people we know were turned away. However, data collected at polling stations underestimates the impact, partly due to issues with the quality of the data but also because some people will have been reminded of the ID requirement before they went to the polling station.
Around 4% of people who didn't vote said this was because of the voter ID requirement
Some people who would have wanted to vote at a polling station may have decided not to try - either because they realised they did not have any accepted ID or were otherwise deterred by the need to show ID. So they would not be recorded as turned away in the figures above. We carried out a representative public opinion survey to understand this broader impact of the voter ID requirement across Great Britain. Our survey asked people if they voted in the elections and, if not, why they had chosen not to do so.
We found that 4% of people who said they did not vote at the general election gave an unprompted reason related to the ID rules. When people who didn't vote were asked to choose from a list of reasons, the proportion of people giving an ID-related reason rose to 10%.
Voter ID affected some people more than others
The impact of the voter ID requirement was not uniform, because some people are less likely to have accepted photo ID and some people are less likely to be aware of the need to show ID when voting in person.
However, the evidence on which groups were more affected is mixed. The clearest impact was in relation to social grade. Non-voters in the C2DE social grade (Opens in new window) were more likely to say they did not vote because they did not have any accepted ID than those in the ABC1 grade.
Levels of voter confidence and satisfaction were similar to previous elections
There were high levels of satisfaction with the process of voting, in line with previous comparable elections - 90% of polling station voters said they were very or fairly satisfied.
Voters were significantly more likely than non-voters to say that voting is safe. 93% of all voters said voting in a polling station is safe compared to 77% of non-voters. These results are also similar to those recorded after previous comparable elections.

https://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/