Electoral Administration Act 2006

The Electoral Administration Act 2006 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, passed on 11 July 2006. The Bill was amended during its passage through the House of Lords to require political parties to declare large loans; this followed the "Cash for Peerages" scandal. However, the Government was defeated by Conservative peers in the House of Lords on two occasions in connection with electoral registration.

Electoral Administration Act 2006[1]

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Long title	An Act to make provision in relation to the registration of electors and the keeping of electoral registration information; standing for election; the administration and conduct of elections and referendums; and the regulation of political parties.
Citation	2006 c. 22
Introduced by	Harriet Harman[2]
Territorial extent	England and Wales; Scotland; Northern Ireland
Dates
Royal assent	11 July 2006
Commencement	Multiple dates[3]
Status: Amended
History of passage through Parliament
Text of statute as originally enacted
Revised text of statute as amended

The Bill went back to the House of Commons, where it was again passed. On return to the Lords, the government was defeated for a second time, whilst the Commons passed it once more. When the Bill went back before the Lords for the third time on 10 July it was finally passed, and went on to receive Royal Assent the following day. Some of its provisions came into effect upon it receiving assent,[4] with other provisions commencing on other dates.[3]

Among its main provisions, the Act:

• Provides a legislative framework for setting up a "Coordinated Online Record of Electors", known as "CORE", to co-ordinate electoral registration information across regions
• Creates new criminal offences for supplying false electoral registration details or for failure to supply such details
• Allows people to register anonymously on electoral registers if a 'safety test' is passed
• Requires local authorities to review all polling stations, and to provide a report on the reviews to the Electoral Commission
• Provides for the making of signature and date of birth checks on postal vote applications
• Revises the law on "undue influence"
• Allows observers to monitor elections (with the exception of Scottish Local Government elections, which are the responsibility of the Scottish Parliament)
• Reduces the age of candidacy for public elections from 21 to 18
• Allows for alterations to ballot paper designs, including the introduction of barcodes and pilot schemes for the introduction of photographs on ballot papers
• Allows citizens of the Republic of Ireland and certain Commonwealth residents the right to stand in elections
• Changes rules on how elections are run in the event of the death of a candidate, following the events in South Staffordshire at the 2005 General Election
• Provides for the entitlement of children to accompany parents and carers into polling stations
• Bars candidates from using in their name or description expressions such as "Don't vote for them" or "None of the above"
• Bars candidates from standing in more than one constituency at the same election
• Allows political parties up to 12 separate descriptions to be used on ballot papers, and allows joint candidature
• Requires local authorities to promote and encourage electoral registration and voting
• Amongst other provisions affecting members of the armed forces and other persons with a "service qualification", allows the Secretary of State to extend the period of validity (previously one year[5]) of a "service declaration" by which qualified persons may have their names placed on the electoral register as "service voters"; the Act also imposes new duties upon the Ministry of Defence
• Removes the requirement for an observer to witness the signing of the security statement of a postal vote.