A coalition of expert organisations within the democracy space have submitted joint evidence to Parliament calling for significant amendments to the Representation of the People Bill, stating that the legislation presents a “rare opportunity” to modernise the UK’s electoral system but requires stronger safeguards to fully protect democratic integrity.
The submission to the Public Bill Committee is backed by more than a dozen civil society organisations working on electoral reform, political finance transparency, democratic participation and digital campaigning regulation. We have welcomed several reforms already contained in the Bill, including the extension of voting rights to 16- and 17-year-olds, stronger protections for election candidates facing harassment, and steps to tighten aspects of political donation rules.
However without further necessary amendments, the legislation risks leaving significant gaps in the UK’s democratic safeguards.
We raised several concerns in the submission including the continued problem of under-registration, the need for stronger rules on political finance, and the independence of the Electoral Commission.
An estimated seven to eight million people in the UK are currently missing from, or incorrectly recorded on, the electoral register. The Bill must include a clear statutory timetable to roll out automatic voter registration nationwide, in order to ensure newly enfranchised young voters are not excluded from the system.
On political finance, we have called for caps on political donations, replacing the current revenue-based test for company donations with a profit-based test, strengthening protections against shell companies and foreign influence.
We have also raised concerns about the independence and enforcement powers of the Electoral Commission. The submission argues that while reforms in the Bill are welcome, further measures are needed to ensure the regulator has both stronger institutional independence and the ability to impose meaningful financial penalties for serious breaches of electoral law.
In addition, we advocate for greater transparency in digital campaigning, including stronger disclosure requirements for online political advertising, publicly accessible ad libraries on major platforms and mandatory labelling of AI-generated political content.
These proposals will ensure that the extension of voting rights to 16- and 17-year-olds translates into genuine participation, and that the electoral system is equipped to deal with modern risks ranging from opaque campaign funding to rapidly evolving digital campaigning techniques.
Expert organisations within the democracy sector are ready and available to provide detailed amendment text and further evidence as Parliament continues scrutiny of the Bill.
