Issue - meetings
Elections 2014/2015 Legacy
Meeting: 21/10/2015 - Best Value Programme Review Board Quarterly Meeting (Item 4)
4 Elections 2014/2015 Legacy PDF 266 KB
Minutes:
The Chair invited Chief Executive Will Tuckley to introduce the report which reviewed of the delivery of the May and June 2015 elections and issues arising from the earlier Election Court judgement; and to record lessons, measures that were particularly successful and areas where further improvement is still required, in order to provide a legacy for future elections.
The Board considered the report and noted the following:
· The recommendations pertained to; the Returning Officer, and to partners (political parties, Metropolitan Police and Central Government)
· The useful information and knowledge imparted by the report.
· As CEO and Returning Officer Will Tuckley:
- Will be able to embed the functions of the organisation in to the delivery of future elections.
- Has significant experience in elections and would bring his expertise to future elections.
- Will explore suggestions made in the report and other ideas to further deliver continuous improvement
· An action plan for future elections would be drawn up and presented to the Board at a future meeting.
· The action plan should indicate the appropriate organisational level at which the Returning Officer should hold/be appointed at to ensure that were council resources needed to be mobilises, there was authority to do so.
The Chair thanked John Williams, Service Head Democratic Services and Louse Stamp, Head of Electoral Services for their work in producing the report. He advised that he wished the authority to establish a process in which there would be confidence with elections within available resources..
RESOLVED
1. That the assessment of the May/June 2015 elections and lessons learnt be noted.
2. That actions arising from the discussion be incorporated into the action plan.
Meeting: 24/09/2015 - General Purposes Committee (Item 8)
8 Elections 2014/2015 Legacy PDF 93 KB
Minutes:
John Williams, Head of Service, Democratic Service, introduced the report and updated the Committee on the 7th May 2015 – UK Parliamentary General Election, constituencies of Bethnal Green & Bow and Poplar & Limehouse.
and the 11th June 2015 – Tower Hamlets Mayoral by-election and Stepney Green Ward by-election.
The Service Head, Democratic Services tabled an updated Appendix 1 and highlighted the following:
· The preparatory work and planning for the delivery of the 7th May elections drew on a range of experience and lessons learnt at previous elections in Tower Hamlets, including the London Mayor and Assembly elections plus two Council ward by-elections in April and May 2012, which were the subject of a report by the Electoral Commission in relation to a number of allegations of electoral fraud; and the combined European Parliamentary, Tower Hamlets Mayor and Council elections on 22nd May 2014, which were also subject to some allegations, following which the Mayoral election was avoided by the Election Court on 23rd April 2015. A range of initiatives were developed to ensure a free and fair contest, efficient delivery of the elections and an orderly poll and count in each case.
· In turn the planning work for the 11th June 2015 elections drew on further lessons learnt in the process of delivering the 7th May polls.
· The result of the two elections was a more successful election which attracted positive feedback from a number of sources and was not been subject to any challenge.
· It was proposed that a new Chief Executive due to take up post with the Council in October 2015, would take up the role of Returning Officer and Electoral Registration Officer for Tower Hamlets.
A review of the delivery of the May and June 2015 elections was being undertaken to identify the lessons learnt, improvements identified etc, in order to provide a legacy for future elections in Tower Hamlets. It was considered that the review was likely also to provide useful recommendations for Returning Officers, Police forces and partner agencies elsewhere in the UK.
The Committee noted that The Rt Hon Eric Pickles MP, in his capacity
as UK Government Ant-Corruption Champion, was currently leading an Electoral Fraud Review and had issued a call for evidence in connection with that review with a deadline of 8th October 2015. The Returning Officer’s expectation was that the legacy report on the Tower Hamlets elections would be able to make a useful contribution to that review.
The Committee noted that the Legacy report included contributions from partner agencies that were involved in delivering or overseeing the 2015 elections locally. These including the Metropolitan Police (both Tower Hamlets Police and the Special Enquiry Team at Scotland Yard), the Electoral Commission, the DCLG Commissioners and Election Agents of candidates at the 2015 elections. The contributions included their views on how the elections were conducted – i.e. what went well, what could
have been improved and what suggestions would they make for future
elections.
The Service Head, Democratic Services ... view the full minutes text for item 8