Government to remove requirement for candidates to have home addresses published

The government has said it will look to bring forward secondary legislation “at a suitable opportunity” to remove the requirement for candidates standing as local councillors to have their home addresses published on the ballot paper.

The move had been recommended by the Committee for Standards in Public Life (CSPL) in its review of intimidation in public life.

In its formal response to the committee’s review, the government said: “We do not want to see capable individuals deterred from standing for office because they believe the process risks their safety, or makes them vulnerable to abusive activity.”

The requirement will be replaced with an option to include a statement of residence based on an electoral area the candidate lives in rather than having to include a specific address. The government said it aimed to do this in time for the 2019 local authority elections.

“This practice must be applied equally to all those standing for election to public office and should apply to those standing at any level of local authority elections including for mayoral positions and for the role of Police and Crime Commissioner," the response said. "This will be done by the next time these polls arise in May 2020."

The government said it also agreed with a recommendation from the CSPL that local authority monitoring officers should ensure that members required to declare pecuniary interests are aware of the sensitive interests provisions of the Localism Act 2011.

It will undertake a review of the 2013 guidance Openness and transparency on personal interests – A Guide for Councillors, with consideration being given to whether this can be made more explicit.

The government said it would then write to local authority chief executives, and work with the Local Government Association and sector bodies, to publicise and raise awareness of the sensitive interest provisions, “to ensure that monitoring officers are aware of this guidance and where to access it”.

The CSPL made a total of 33 recommendations in its review, including a call for a consultation on a new offence in electoral law of intimidating Parliamentary candidates and party campaigners.

The government accepted that recommendation and said it would look at the issue in light of the recommendation made by Sir Eric Pickles in his report ‘Securing the Ballot’ that the offence of undue influence in respect of electors should be strengthened.

“The 2015 Tower Hamlets Election Court case found the legal threshold for proving intimidation was too high, such that prosecutions were not viable, even despite clear evidence of intimidation outside polling stations in the 2014 local elections. The Government response to that report agreed that the threshold should be amended,” it said.

“We will also consider if there are sufficient safeguards from abuse and intimidation for electors and also for public servants charged with delivering our elections.”

The majority of the CSPL’s remaining recommendations related to social media companies and political parties.