Voter Registration, Election Turnout and Compulsory Voting

My Lords, we have examined the electoral system in Australia, where they have introduced more automated forms of voter registration. Their experience highlights just how much time, iteration and rigorous testing are required to build processes and data sources of sufficient quality. Over the coming years, we are working to create a new automated voter registration system, thereby removing a key barrier to eligible citizens participating in our democracy. It is likely that Australia’s long-established policy of compulsory voting, automated forms of registration and public engagement in democratic participation may have contributed to the higher levels of turnout at its elections. Different democracies make different choices about how they encourage electoral participation.

My Lords, the turnout level in Australia’s most recent general election was 91%, compared to only 60% in the UK, and Australia has achieved voter registration levels of 98%, compared to just 86% in the UK. The Government’s impact assessment suggests that the moves towards automatic voter registration will increase voter registration rates by less than 0.8% in two years—perhaps in time for the next election. Do the Government accept that low turnouts and there being perhaps 8 million people missing from our electoral registers severely weaken the health of our democracy? What more will they do to address these issues?

I stress to the noble Lord that I said it has taken a long time for Australia to get where it has. It started off with compulsory voting in 1924. The 1922 election saw a less than 60% turnout. That has risen, as he said, to 91% in the 2025 election, but that is a result of a number of steps it has taken, including the registration steps that we are looking at now. It is an iterative process and we need to move ahead with it carefully. We make different choices in different countries about the way we move this forward. At the moment, the Government believe that we have to focus on taking down barriers to participation. That is why we are taking steps in the Representation of the People Bill, which we will be debating shortly, to make voting easier and more accessible before we go forward with any further steps.

My Lords, to some, compulsory voting might seem a rather illiberal proposal. Have the Government considered incentivised voting instead, perhaps in the form of a National Lottery draw for all voters on the occasion of each general election, with the winning prize going to one of the voters—or, if they object, it could be donated to charity instead?

I am all for innovation in election processes, but that might cause some problems among members of our community who do not like to take part in gambling. However, we have been doing some voter piloting. The key thing here is to tackle the barriers to people getting involved in the democratic process. We know what they are. The Electoral Commission did a review very recently on this, and people were very clear that it is lack of information about parties and candidates, negative perception of the voting system and that voting is too complicated. Anyone who has been on the doorstep trying to persuade someone to go out to vote will realise the misconception about how voting works. We have to tackle those barriers before we start thinking about the more exciting innovation that my noble friend speaks about.

My Lords, is this not a question of letting people choose whether they wish to vote or register to vote? This seems an easy thing. I hate to agree with the Government on this, but taking caution is a very sensible thing to do.

I did not expect to get that support, but I am very grateful for it. The Government support the use of pilots to test and evaluate electoral reforms—which is exactly what we have been doing through this process—where there is a clear case for doing so, but we do not have any plans for piloting compulsory voting at this time. We want to remove those barriers to participation, make it easier for eligible electors to register and vote, and make sure that we encourage the 7 or 8 million voters who could vote but who are currently not registered to get on the register.

My Lords, the Minister very kindly gave me a Written Answer saying that Government have no current plans to introduce compulsory voting. However, since an amendment will be proposed by my noble friends Lady Royall, Lord Kinnock and Lord Blunkett, and me to the Representation of the People Bill, will she talk with her colleagues in government and see if this is an opportunity to consider compulsory voting, since there are no rational arguments against it?

I very much look forward to debating this when we start the Representation of the People Bill on 14 September. I am sure there will be lively discussions about all matters to do with elections. Of course, I am always happy to debate things that are already in the Bill or things that people want to have in the Bill as we go through that process.

My Lords, the Representation of the People Bill proposes automatic voter registration, which will obviously involve new computers and new data systems. Can the Minister clarify how much this is expected to cost?

We want to make sure that the system is adequate to deal with all voter registration. We are assured by the Electoral Commission and the electoral administration authorities that we have sufficient processes in place, because the system is set up to register all voters who are eligible to vote. What we need to do is encourage them to do so and make sure they are on those systems.

My Lords, if 16 year-olds are able to vote in future, at the first election after their 16th birthday, how will they all be registered to do so? Do not local authorities face a problem with non-registration, whereby it enables some people to claim single person discount on their council tax?

In terms of voting at 16, the Government intend the franchise change to be in place in good time ahead of the next general election. We were elected on a clear mandate, which included extending that right to vote to 16 and 17 year-olds, and that will be a major change to the electoral franchise. We need to get it right. It is not just the change to the electoral law but making sure we have the democratic and civic education process in place, and I know that my noble friend the Minister for Education is working on that as we speak. We are putting all that in place before we get to the stage where 16 and 17 year-olds will be asked to cast their vote. On the issue of single person council tax discount, that is a matter for people’s declarations. They make a declaration to their local authority which is renewed regularly when they renew their council tax bill. They have to say consistently that they still wish to claim that single person council tax discount.

My Lords, the Minister may have been somewhat disconcerted by receiving support from my noble friend Lord Robathan. She will be even more disconcerted that she is receiving support from me as well on compulsory voting and compulsory registration. Can she confirm that she has looked carefully at the way Northern Ireland provides access to everybody to check the register? Would that not provide the opportunity for good online voter registration without the cost to which my noble friend on the Front Bench referred?

We worked very closely with the devolved Administrations as we went through this process. There were a number of pilots in Wales, for example, and we are working with our Welsh colleagues to explore what they learned from their experience. We are looking very carefully at open registers because, as we explore and adopt those more automated approaches, we want to remove the presumption that citizens will be added to an open register unless they opt out. I think it will work the other way round, in effect, once we have automated voter registration. All those issues are being explored very carefully, and we are very much looking at the experience in our devolved Administrations to learn what we can with them and from them.

My Lords, democracy is of course about a lot more than simply voter participation. What are the Government currently doing to enable civic participation at this time, particularly by minoritised groups, which will aid in safeguarding our democracy?

I am grateful to the right reverend Prelate, because he enables me to answer in a better way the question that the noble Baroness, Lady Nicholson, asked me yesterday about how we are involving and engaging people in the democratic process. Electors’ attitudes and motivations are arguably more important than process issues in stopping them registering and voting, as I am sure the right reverend Prelate will be aware. The Electoral Commission, as I said, explored the reasons for that. Backed by a total of £2.5 million, the democratic engagement fund will provide grants of £1,000 to £50,000, with most awards expected to be around £25,000. We expect projects on that democratic engagement to be completed by January 2028, and we will be exploring many different ways of having better democratic engagement, particularly across groups that are less inclined to vote.