Agenda item

5.1.  The Chair welcomed to the meeting Tim Shields, Chief Executive and Dan Paul, Head of Human Resources & Organisational Development (HR&OD) from London Borough of Hackney, to give an update on the successes of the solutions implemented following the 2015 Election Services review and how the Elections Team have responded to the volume of elections in Hackney during 2016.

5.2.  The Commission received information about the problems experienced with voter registration / postal votes for the London Mayoral election and dispatch delays for the Mayoral borough election in 2016. 

5.3.  The report attached on pages 23-27 provided information about the elections carried out in Hackney in 2016.  The main points highlighted from the report were:

·  The commission previously received information on the IT system and performance and issues related to performance in the team.

·  A new team structure was implemented and the team has been trained to use the new IT system

·  In 2016 the elections team carried out 7 elections 3 of which were borough wide.

·  41,000 people registered to vote

·  The processed operated have highlighted some areas for improvement

·  It was noted approximately 900 staff are required to run a borough wide election

·  Changes in statutory duties have increased the election teams workload significantly and it is not expected to change

·  Hackney currently has 167,000 active voters on the register.

·  The elections team still need to continue with the work to remove people from the register.

5.4.  Question, Discussions and Comments

(i)  Members commented on concerns that had been raised about the move to the Individual Electoral Registration (IER) system and the impact of this on multiple occupancy households.

The Head of HR & OD confirmed the Council removed 30,000 people from the register in 2015.  He explained this was a statutory duty.  In addition to this the Council received and processed 41,000 voter applications from 1^st April – 9^th June 2016.  The publish register currently stands at 180,000.

(ii)  Members pointed out residents had made contact about polling cards and missing information related to postal voter registration, instruction or the person to contact for postal votes.

The Commission was informed if people registered late their application would still continue through the system for a voter registration however the information about postal votes would not be included because they were outside the timescale to obtain one.

(iii)  Members recapped on the problems to date being related to staff, systems and volumes of resident complaints about the election process.  Members asked officers for reassured that all the problems identified have been resolved.

The Head of HR & OD acknowledged there have been a number of problems in the past which have been covered by previous reports to the Commission.  It was pointed out the problems experienced in 2015 were not the same problems experienced in the 2016 elections.  For the Mayoral election the error causing the delay to distribution was as a result of the word conservative being spelt incorrectly.  The error was managed through the HR processes.  The Head of HR & OD provided assurance the team and processes in place now are working correctly.

The Chief Executive highlighted the issues that occurred 16-17 months prior have been robustly managed.  The team and structure was replaced and crucially a new IT system implemented.

The Chief Executive emphasised the elections team ability to plan, manage and successfully run the volume of elections in 2016 was commendable.  There were points when the team was downloading 4 times a day due to the volume of applications.  The team was working until 3am to meet the deadline for voter registration on the system.  The process also required manual intervention to check duplicate applications.  In addition to this the Government also extended the deadline for applications and this had a huge impact on the team’s workload

It was also noted at points in time the team were running 2 election simultaneously.  The borough’s Mayoral election also overlapped with canvassing duties.

Officers were confident the team has robust systems, plans and risk management in place, all of which were tested in 2016.

(iv)  In reference to the turnout for each election.  Members commented the borough elections were lower than the national elections in 2016.  Members enquired if there were plans to try to improve the turnout for local elections?

The Head of HR & OD advised there are currently no plans and explained typically by-elections are held with other elections.

(v)  Members commented they were reassured the council would not have a repeat of the same problems because senior management had good oversight and robust processes in place.

The Head of HR & OD informed Members he would be obtaining the relevant elections qualification and in the meantime the Council has access to sound external advice.

The Cabinet Member for Finance and Customer Services pointed out running this number of elections was expensive and resulted in the Council having to use some of its reserves to finance the expense.