• Research Briefing

    Party Political Broadcasts

    This note sets out the current arrangements for party political broadcasts including their allocation, frequency, scheduling, length and content. Details are given of the BBC’s final allocation criteria for party election broadcasts (PEBs) in 2015 as well as Ofcom’s rules on PEBs for commercial broadcasters.

  • Research Briefing

    Prisoners’ voting rights (2005 to May 2015)

    Prisoners serving a custodial sentence do not have the right to vote under UK law. Prisoners on remand are able to vote under the provisions of the Representation of the People Act 2000. This Standard Note provides a narrative of events from the judgment of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) on 6 October 2005, in the case of Hirst v United Kingdom (No 2), to the May 2015 General Election.

  • Research Briefing

    Regulation of candidates’ campaign expenditure: the long and the short of it…

    There are two regulated periods for candidates contesting the UK Parliamentary general election, known as the long campaign and the short campaign. Separate spending limits apply in each of these periods. The long campaign period (technically the period during which the pre-candidacy election expenses are regulated) began on 19 December 2014 and ends on the

  • Research Briefing

    Recall of MPs Bill 2014-15

    The Recall of MPs Bill 2014-15 was introduced on 11 September 2014, and is scheduled to be debated on second reading on 14 October. There was a commitment to legislate to introduce a power of recall in the Coalition Agreement, and a draft bill was scrutinised by the Political and Constitutional Reform Committee in 2012.

  • Research Briefing

    Local election petitions

    A local election petition has been brought following the elections on 22 May 2014 in Tower Hamlets seeking to have the election of the mayor, Lutfur Rahman, declared void. This note gives details of the different electoral offences and the procedure for bringing a local election petition. It also gives brief details of previous allegations of electoral abuse in Tower Hamlets.

  • Research Briefing

    Election addresses

    This note looks briefly at the current provisions covering the free postage of election addresses and the decision to make the election addresses of the candidates for the Police and Crime Commissioner elections in 2012 available on a central website instead of mailing them to households. Turnout at the PCC elections averaged 14.7% across all police areas. Following the death of the Police and Crime Commissioner for the West Midlands a by-election is to be held on 21 August 2014. The Government has published a draft Order to allow booklets containing the candidates’ election addresses to be delivered to homes in the West Midlands.

  • Research Briefing

    Wales Bill 2013-14

    The Wales Bill had its first reading in the House of Commons on 20 March 2014; it is due to have its second reading on 31 March 2014. The Bill devolves some tax-raising powers to the National Assembly for Wales. Stamp duty and landfill tax are devolved, while a power is created to reduce income tax by 10 pence in the pound and put a Welsh rate of income tax in its place. The Bill allows these powers over income tax to be devolved only if they are approved in a referendum, the calling of which is subject to parliamentary approval and a two-thirds majority in the Assembly.

  • Research Briefing

    Bringing electoral registration into the twenty-first century

    The new system of Individual Electoral Registration (IER) will be introduced in England and Wales on 10 June 2014 and on 19 September 2014 in Scotland. The current system still mainly relies on the Victorian idea of the ‘head of the household’ being responsible for registering everyone who lives at that property. The Electoral Commission

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