Agenda item

To receive the report of the recent Local Election Review Working Group.

The Director: Policy & Governance presented the Elections Review Working Group report to the Committee. The report outlined the work conducted by the working group including the initial scene setting meeting on 11 October 2023 and the workshop on 9 November 2023, where expert witness Mark Heath, Solace, attended to provide expert evidence. The report had been circulated to the Committee in advance of the meeting and outlined the meetings and workshops that helped to inform the report and the recommendations and conclusions of the working group.

The Director: Policy & Governance highlighted that paragraph 2.5 of the report detailed the recent legislative changes with voter photo ID which required electorates to show a form of photographic ID to confirm their identity. The Committee were informed that there were20 different forms of ID an electorate could show. Paragraphs 2.18 and 2.19 of the report illustrated that only 0.3% of electorates in Telford and Wrekin did not have the correct ID compared to the national average of 1.4% of electorates with the incorrect ID. However, Members were advised that the national average was stated to have some discrepancies. It was highlighted within the report the work that the Council’s Communications Team had done in terms of promoting the election and the use of photo ID, which had been repeated for the Police Crime Commission elections later in the year.

Section 5 of the report addressed the 11 recommendations made by Members which included 5 for action and 6 for noting by the Committee. The Director: Policy & Governance stated that following formal agreement by the Committee to accept the report and agree the recommendations that the next steps would be to present it to a meeting of Cabinet later in the year.

Following the presentation, Members posed a number of comments and questions.

The Chair and Members commented on the report and noted that they were pleased that their reviews and comments were reflected accurately within the report. Members highlighted that the Elections Team were working to continuously improve the process for all involved and that recommendations 5.1 to 5.5 had illustrated this.

The work regarding the comms around voter ID was noted to be positive especially within diverse wards and the data presented had shown a clear understanding of what was classed as accepted forms of voter ID.

For clarity, were the 0.3% of voters that did not present the correct form of voter ID, part of the full total including those that did not have the correct ID but returned later with the correct ID or the number of voters that did not vote because they did not have the correct ID?

The 0.3% was stated to be the reported percentage of electorates that did not vote because they had the incorrect ID.

Recommendation 5.2   refers to ‘political groups’. Could this be updated to include non-party affiliated Members?

The Director: Policy & Governance explained that recommendation 5.1 highlighted the inclusion of non-party affiliated Members and highlighted that those elected Members which were independent had been recognised throughout the report.

Members voted on the recommendations outlined in the report which were unanimously agreed

RESOLVED – that: the recommendations within the Election Review report be approved as follows:-

1.    Future prospective candidates (both those that are members of a political group and those that are independent) and their agents ensure that they attend the briefings provided prior to an election in order to better understand the process of an election count;

2.    All political groups should take steps to ensure that any prospective candidates and agents attend the pre-election briefings offered by the Returning Officer and his team;

3.    That, at the next election, the elections team pilot the staggering of staff breaks to assess what impact, if any, this has on the efficiency of proceedings;

4.    Where possible, at future elections where several wards require counting, an indicative count plan is provided to candidates so that they have some expectation as to when results for their prospective ward may be announced.  This needs to be shared along with advice that it is an indicative plan only and could be subject to change; and

5.    The elections team review the training requirements for count staff who will be counting multi-member wards, including the implementation of the training video(s) that are being prepared by the Returning Officer’s team.

Members also noted:-

6.    That, whilst the role of the Returning Officer is independent of the Council, there is a requirement for the local authority to provide the Returning Officer with appropriate resources to enable him to discharge his legal responsibilities;

7.    That the Returning Officer has adopted an approach to ensure continuous improvement and that this approach be maintained;

8.    The significant work carried out by the Returning Officer and his team in organising and conducting an election;

9.    That it is considered good practice to utilise local authority employees to staff elections;

10.   That the ‘lessons learned’ exercise carried out by the Returning Officer after each election was good practice and that some small improvements had already been identified and incorporated into future plans – these improvements were endorsed by Members; and

11.   The work of the Returning Officer and his team was thorough, robust and provided assurance that the election process was well run.