Business Improvement District Ballots: Digital Voting

Question

Asked by

To ask His Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the potential for piloting digital voting in Business Improvement District ballots in order to improve participation and test secure digital voting systems.

My Lords, the Government recognise the very important role that BIDs can play in regenerating their local areas and I thank my noble friend for his work across BIDs in London. In the Pride in Place Strategy published on 25 September, we committed to strengthening the BID model by expanding property owner BIDs, raising standards and consulting on improvements to voting procedures in BID ballots, which will include introducing an option for digital voting. Further details will be published in due course.

My Lords, I thank my noble friend the Minister for that Answer, which leads to my further question. Business improvement district ballots involve a clearly defined electorate of registered voters. They are overseen by local authority returning officers, and they determine real financial commitments through the bid levy. Yet participation is constrained by the continued reliance on postal-only voting, which can be administratively cumbersome for businesses and local authorities. If the Government recognise that potential, will they now move beyond assessment and commit to enabling a small number of pilot schemes for secure digital voting in BID ballots and bring forward the necessary legislative power to do so, subject to appropriate safeguards?

We have heard that the postal voting system does not always work as effectively as it should for BID ballots and we want to make sure that BID ballots are as efficient and as accessible as possible, which is why we have committed to consulting on those improvements to BID voting procedures. We will consult on the introduction of digital voting for BID ballots as part of this, including how it will work in practical terms. Of course, we need to make absolutely sure that it can be done safely as well. Subject to the outcome of the consultation, we will then decide how the proposal should be implemented.

My Lords, a quick look at international comparisons for introducing digital voting suggests that experiments in other advanced democratic countries have shown that it is okay at the local level, where the likelihood of cyber attack is low, but at the national level it is open to too many risks to try it out. Is that also the Government’s view?

We absolutely understand the interest in online voting but, when it comes to electing representatives, the integrity and security of the process must come first. At present, serious concerns are shared internationally about the risks of online voting, including cyber threats, fraud and the challenge of ensuring a fully secure and anonymous ballot. That is why we currently have no plans to introduce online voting for statutory elections in the UK, but we are focused on strengthening the current systems for absent voting, such as postal and proxy voting, so that they remain secure, reliable and accessible for everyone.

My Lords, the noble Lord, Lord Pitkeathley, is right about the importance of generating interests in BIDs wherever they may happen to be across the country, and there is inadequate participation in voting in general when it comes to BIDs. Can the Minister please indicate the timetable that she is talking about for the process of consultation, in relation to both trialling digital voting and other elements of the process of introducing BIDs?

I agree with the noble Lord that BIDs bring very significant investment in the areas they operate in. There are now more than 340 BIDs in the UK; cumulatively, they invest more than £169 million each year in local areas. We need to ensure that we are doing our very best to ensure that those BIDs operate in a way that works for the people who are engaged in them. We want to get this consultation and its analysis done as quickly as possible so that, if we consider it possible and safe to introduce digital voting for them, we can get on with that and do it as quickly as we can.

My Lords, as a member of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, I have recently been involved in election monitoring programmes, for example in Moldova, so I am very aware of the threat of cyber attacks that the noble Lord raised. When the Minister looks at the security of digital voting systems, can she draw on the experience of organisations such as the OSCE, so that—even though she says we may not be use them at the moment—we can make sure that our systems are watertight and safe from cyber attacks in the future?

I am grateful to my noble friend, particularly as she reminds me of the days when I was doing election monitoring in Moldova and Georgia, which was a fascinating experience. I very much appreciated then the work of the OSCE, and still do. She is quite right that we have to do all we can to make sure that voting is safe. I believe that the Representation of the People Bill is completing its Commons stages today and will come to our House in due course. Where good practice is developed and promoted by the OSCE and others, we will look at that with great interest.

My Lords, BIDs do much good work for our town centres, but this is being blown away by the massive damage caused to our town centres by higher national insurance contributions, higher business rates, increased minimum wages and employment regulation. For example, UKHospitality figures show over 100,000 job losses since this Government came to power. Will the Government recognise the impact of these damaging policies on our town centres and reverse course?

The decline in our town centres—I speak from personal experience—started long before this Government came to power. Our Government are delivering on their manifesto commitment to protect the high street and rebalance the business rates system by introducing permanently lower tax rates for eligible retail, hospitality and leisure properties. We will bring forward our high streets strategy later this year.

Is my noble friend aware of research showing that low-paid workers are much more likely to spend their wages on the local high street and in the local economy? Will she join me in encouraging noble Lords to talk to workers on the national minimum wage so that they realise what a difference that rise will make to their lives and those of their families?

I agree with my noble friend that everybody should be paid a proper wage for the job they do. She is quite right that money earned in local areas is often spent locally by those on lower wages, so it is very important that we do that. One thing that really affected our high streets was the legislation that made shop theft of below £200 a summary-only offence. That has now been removed by this Government so that we can make our town centres not only vibrant and viable but safe.