The General Election on 4 July 2024 is the second since the
UK settled the prisoner voting cases in the European
Court of Human Rights. In the Hirst group of cases, the Court found that
the blanket, automatic restriction on all convicted prisoners voting in
parliamentary elections violated Article 3 of
Protocol No. 1 to the European Convention on Human Rights which
requires that elections ensure the free expression of the opinion of the
electorate in the choice of the legislature.
After
years of toing and froing, in November 2017 then Justice Secretary
David Lidington somehow managed to satisfy the Council of Europe that
some very
minimal administrative reforms brought the UK into compliance. Voting
rights were extended to prisoners released on temporary licence (so-called
ROTL) who are in the community on the date of an election. Lidington estimated
this would affect up to 100 convicted prisoners but at the time of the 2019 election
I
thought the number might in practice be at the low end of the range.
This will be the first General Election since the Prison Service
published its “Restrictions
on Prisoner Voting Policy Framework” in 2020 which sought to clarify the
position. So where does this leave prisoners’ rights to vote on 4 July?
As before the Hirst cases, remand prisoners (both
untried and convicted but unsentenced) will be eligible to vote- there were 16,458
at the end of March 2024 (considerably more than the 9,512 at the end of
September 2019).
Prisoners released under Home Detention Curfew (2,169
at the end of last week) also have the right to vote as do those detained for
matters such as non-payment of council tax or contempt of court. There were 412
non- criminal prisoners at the end of March, but the figure may include
people held under the Immigration Act who do not qualify to
vote. The small number of fine defaulters in jail are to be
also able to vote if they wish.
To get an idea of the numbers subject to release on
temporary licence who may be eligible to vote, 4,500 individual prisoners
were on ROTL at some point during the last three months of 2023, but the
numbers in the community on the dates necessary to register and to vote will be
much lower- hence Lidington’s estimate of less than 100.
In addition, there are an unknown number of prisoners in
the community subject to end of custody supervised licence, the emergency early
release provision introduced and extended to cope with overcrowding pressures. As
things stand, they seem ineligible to vote but arguably should be allowed to.
Eligibility is of course only one part of the story. In
order to cast their ballot, an eligible prisoner must register to vote, in this
case by 18 June. Some may already be registered. For those who wish to register,
the Prison policy makes clear that “no convicted prisoner can register
to vote when they are in prison, including those who anticipate being on HDC or
ROTL at the time of an election. Prisoners on HDC or ROTL are only eligible to
register to vote once they are in the community and become ineligible again
upon any return to prison”.
As for where they register vote, some eligible prisoners
may be able to register to vote at their home address, others by making a
declaration of local connection based on having a significant link to a
particular locality. Eligible prisoners may be able to register to vote giving
the address of the prison establishment where they are held, but this does not
apply to prisoners on HDC and ROTL. Whether or not prisoners are able to
register in these ways will be subject to the discretion of Electoral Registration
Officers, the Council officials who maintain the electoral roll.
Once these hurdles are crossed, there is the voting itself. Convicted prisoners on HDC and ROTL who have registered can vote in the normal way or apply for a postal or proxy vote. Remand, civil prisoners and fine defaulters can apply to vote by post or by proxy from prison. Staff should ensure relevant application forms for absent voting are available to prisoners if requested.
There is nothing in the Policy Framework about whether prisoners
can vote in person in prison. There is a strong case for the ERO to make such arrangements,
particularly in prisons with large numbers of remand prisoners. Wandsworth has more
than 600 remand prisoners. I’d be interested to know the practice.
For those interested in the topic, a useful article on The
Administrative Disenfranchisement of Prisoners in England and Wales was
published in the Prison Service Journal last year.