Voter fraud statistics

The request was partially successful.

Dear Electoral Commission,

Please provide the following statistics for the period you have records, but covering at least 2000 to date.

1) Total number of votes cast in all elections and referenda during the period requested.
2) Number of allegations of a breach of The Representation of the People Act 1983, the Representation of the People Act 1985, the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000 or the Electoral Administration Act 2006.
3) Number of investigations carried out by yourselves or the police.
4) Number of cases passed to the CPS for prosecution.
5) Number of successful prosecutions, and resulting sentence, of the above acts.

Yours faithfully,

Paul Stuffins

FOI, Electoral Commission

1 Attachment

Dear Paul,

 

Our Ref: FOI 154/17

 

Thank you for your request under the Freedom of Information Act dated
29/09/17, concerning:

 

Please provide the following statistics for the period you have records,
but covering at least 2000 to date.

 

1) Total number of votes cast in all elections and referenda during the
period requested.

2) Number of allegations of a breach of The Representation of the People
Act 1983, the Representation of the People Act 1985, the Political
Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000 or the Electoral
Administration Act 2006.

3) Number of investigations carried out by yourselves or the police.

4) Number of cases passed to the CPS for prosecution.

5) Number of successful prosecutions, and resulting sentence, of the above
acts.

 

The Commission aims to respond to requests for information promptly and
within the statutory timeframe of twenty working days.

 

You may expect to receive a reply sent from the Commission by 26/10/17.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

Humayra Siddika

Information Management Adviser

The Electoral Commission
3 Bunhill Row
London EC1Y 8YZ

[1]www.electoralcommission.org.uk

Putting voters first

 

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FOI, Electoral Commission

1 Attachment

Dear Paul,

 

We apologise for the delay in sending through this FOI. Please expect to
hear from us early next week.

 

Apologies for any inconvenience.

 

Kind Regards,

Humayra

 

From: FOI
Sent: 29 September 2017 16:33
To: 'Paul Stuffins'
Cc: FOI
Subject: RE: Freedom of Information request - Voter fraud statistics -
154/17 Acknowledgement

 

Dear Paul,

 

Our Ref: FOI 154/17

 

Thank you for your request under the Freedom of Information Act dated
29/09/17, concerning:

 

Please provide the following statistics for the period you have records,
but covering at least 2000 to date.

 

1) Total number of votes cast in all elections and referenda during the
period requested.

2) Number of allegations of a breach of The Representation of the People
Act 1983, the Representation of the People Act 1985, the Political
Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000 or the Electoral
Administration Act 2006.

3) Number of investigations carried out by yourselves or the police.

4) Number of cases passed to the CPS for prosecution.

5) Number of successful prosecutions, and resulting sentence, of the above
acts.

 

The Commission aims to respond to requests for information promptly and
within the statutory timeframe of twenty working days.

 

You may expect to receive a reply sent from the Commission by 26/10/17.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

Humayra Siddika

Information Management Adviser

The Electoral Commission
3 Bunhill Row
London EC1Y 8YZ

[1]www.electoralcommission.org.uk

Putting voters first

 

P   Please consider the environment before printing this email.

 

[2]http://skynet/dm/Functions/internalcomms...

 

References

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FOI, Electoral Commission

Dear Mr Stuffins,

 

Our Ref: FOI 154/17

 

Thank you for your email to the Electoral Commission dated 29 September
2017.

 

The Commission aims to respond to requests for information promptly and
regrets that on this occasion we have not done so.

 

Your request is in bold below followed by our response.

 

You have requested:

 

1) Total number of votes cast in all elections and referenda during the
period requested (covering at least 2000 to date).

2) Number of allegations of a breach of The Representation of the People
Act 1983, the Representation of the People Act 1985, the Political
Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000 or the Electoral
Administration Act 2006.

3) Number of investigations carried out by yourselves or the police.

4) Number of cases passed to the CPS for prosecution.

5) Number of successful prosecutions, and resulting sentence, of the above
acts.

 

Our response is as follows:

 

We hold some of the information you have requested.

 

The Commission enforces the rules on political funding and spending set
out in the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000 (PPERA).
We do not enforce the rules set out in any other Acts. We can investigate
potential offences under PPERA and, where applicable, impose civil
sanctions on persons or parties found to have committed offences. We may
also refer matters to the police to consider investigating. You can find
more details on our enforcement activity on our website here.

 

We hold information on our own investigations and sanctions, and on some
police investigations. However, for numbers of criminal investigations and
prosecutions you would need to contact police and prosecuting authorities
directly. 

 

The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requires that the Electoral
Commission provide you with information that is held by the Commission and
where this information has already been published to direct you to this. 
FOIA does not require that the Commission create new data, information or
datasets to answer specific questions.

 

1) All of the data the Electoral Commission holds in relation to this is
publically available on our website here:
https://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/o...

2) We do not hold this information. In respect of PPERA, we do not
categorise ‘allegations’ in the way that you have defined your request. We
categorise incoming queries to our Political Finance and Regulation Advice
Service by the issue raised, and not whether the person making the request
considers it to be an allegation.  We do not hold information on the
number of allegations received by the police or other enforcement bodies
in respect of PPERA or other legislation.

The Electoral Commission annually publishes our Analysis of electoral
fraud data on our website from 2008 onwards, and Police data on electoral
fraud data which are summary documents but may provide some of the
information that you are interested in:
https://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/f...

 

3) We do not hold this information in respect of the police. In respect of
our investigations, until 2007 the Commission had no specific
investigation powers or dedicated investigative function. Matters raised
were dealt with in the same way as other correspondence. In effect
therefore, no investigations were conducted during that period. The
Commission established a team of investigators in late 2007 and set up
procedures by which investigations were conducted and recorded. The number
of cases considered was published in our annual report from 2008-09
onwards, and the figures are as follows:

 

•           2008-09 - 27

•           2009-10 - 50

•           2010-11 - 34

•           2011-12 - 134

 

It is important to note however that until 2011-12 investigations were not
opened in relation to the late delivery or failure to deliver statutory
returns such as annual accounts. These were dealt with through a separate
process. Since 2012 statutory return cases have been included in the
number of cases. From 2012 to date the Commission has published the
outcome of all investigations on its website. You can therefore find the
number and a summary of all investigations since that date on the website
– see the link above.

 

4) We do not hold this information.  The Commission does not pass cases
directly to the Crown Prosecution Service. 

5) We do not hold this information. You will need to approach the Crown
Prosecution Service (England and Wales), Crown Office and Procurator
Fiscal Service (Scotland), and/or Public Prosecution Service Northern
Ireland directly for this data.

 

I trust that this information satisfies your request. The Commission
strives to be an open, transparent authority. If you are not satisfied
with this response, please note that the Commission operates a review
procedure, details of which can be found on the Commission website at:
[1]http://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/ab....

 

Please also note that if you have exhausted all internal Commission review
procedures and you are still not satisfied you have the right to appeal to
the Information Commissioner. Details of this procedure can be found on
the ICO website: https://ico.org.uk/

 

Yours sincerely,

 

Humayra Siddika

Information Management Adviser

The Electoral Commission

3 Bunhill Row
London EC1Y 8YZ

[2]electoralcommission.org.uk

[3]yourvotematters.co.uk

 

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