The Electoral Commission is independent of government and directly accountable to the UK, Scottish and Welsh parliaments. Its statistics cover how elections are administered, how people vote, how campaigns are funded and what allegations of electoral fraud are recorded. The figures below use the measurement periods stated by the Commission and distinguish reported results from estimates.
Contents
- What the Electoral Commission does
- Commission finances and fees
- Voter experience at the 2024 general election
- Voter ID and access to polling stations
- Electoral fraud allegations in 2024
- Campaign spending at UK general elections
What the Electoral Commission does
The Commission’s annual reporting provides statistics about electoral registers, political parties, public information campaigns and the experience of voters. In 2023/24, 81% of party registrations were processed within the target time, according to the [Electoral Commission Annual Report and Accounts 2023/24]. The same annual report said that the Commission exceeded its target for voter registration performance and published research on the accuracy and completeness of the UK’s electoral registers.
The Commission reported a higher-than-normal number of freedom of information and subject access requests after the cyber-attack on 8 August 2023. Its operational activity also included two new leases, with a move into James William House in March 2024. Welsh Language Commissioner monitoring in 2023/24 found that the Commission scored highly or moderately in nearly all tested compliance areas.
Public education and stakeholder work formed another part of its activity. More than 60 schools signed up to Welcome to Your Vote Week in Wales. Ahead of the May elections, the Commission briefed more than 20 partner organisations supporting people least likely to own accepted photo identification. It delivered two new campaigns on voter ID and voter registration, trained third-sector organisations intending to campaign at reserved elections, and provided training for candidates and agents through virtual briefing sessions and party conferences.
The Commission also worked with police forces in Wales on concerns about abuse and intimidation at elections, and with political parties to help them understand new digital imprint rules. These figures are activity measures rather than measures of voter turnout or election results, but they show the range of work covered by the organisation’s statistics.
Commission finances and fees
The Commission’s financial year runs from 1 April to 31 March. Its reported expenditure increased between 2023/24 and 2024/25.
| Financial measure | 2023/24 | 2024/25 |
|---|---|---|
| Total gross expenditure | £32.716 million | £39.937 million |
| Total income | £3.470 million | £3.814 million |
| Direct expenditure | £23.510 million | £33.253 million |
| Indirect expenditure | £9.206 million | £10.498 million |
The [Electoral Commission Annual Report and Accounts 2024/25] recorded net expenditure of £29.246 million in 2023/24. For 2024/25, it recorded £36.227 million of net expenditure for UK Parliament-funded work, alongside £2.158 million of Scottish Parliament net expenditure and £1.552 million of Senedd net expenditure. The 2023/24 figures for those devolved bodies were £1.997 million for the Scottish Parliament and £1.449 million for the Senedd.
These amounts describe different reporting lines and funding responsibilities, so they should not be treated as a single measure of the cost of one election. Gross expenditure, income, direct expenditure, indirect expenditure and net expenditure answer different accounting questions.
The House of Commons set the current commissioner daily rate at £464 from 1 April 2024. The half-day rate was £232. For 2023/24, commissioner fees were £90,560 for John Pullinger CB, £10,185 for Alex Attwood, £13,729 for Dame Susan Bruce and £14,962 for Sylvie Encelot, according to the [Electoral Commission commissioner fees page]. John Pullinger CB received £80,916 in commissioner fees in 2022/23.
Voter experience at the 2024 general election
At the 2024 UK general election, 94% of voters said they used their preferred voting method. The result differed by method: 96% of in-person voters said they used their preferred method, compared with 91% of postal voters. Nearly all voters, 98%, said it was easy to fill in their ballot paper.
The [Electoral Commission report on the 2024 UK Parliamentary general election and the May 2024 elections] recorded a 0.4% rejection rate for ballot papers at the 2024 general election. The comparable figure for 2019 was 0.36%. Rejection rates therefore remained below 1% in both reported UK general-election figures, although the percentages describe different elections and should not be read as a measure of all voting difficulties.
Postal voting had a high reported ease-of-use level as well. Most postal voters, 96%, said it was easy to complete their postal ballot pack. Among postal voters aged 18 to 24, the figure was 90%. Among people limited a lot by a disability or health condition, 93% said it was easy, compared with 98% among people without a disability.
Returned postal votes were rejected at a higher rate than all ballot papers considered together: 2.2% of returned postal votes, or about 168,000 votes, at the 2024 general election. Three per cent of in-person voters said they needed help to fill in their ballot paper, and 3% of postal voters said they needed help to fill in their ballot pack.
London mayoral elections show why the voting system and election must be identified when comparing rejection statistics. At the 2024 London mayoral election, 0.5% of ballot papers were rejected. In the 2021 London mayoral election, 4.3% of first-preference votes were rejected, while the figure was 1.9% in 2016. These are not directly interchangeable measures: the London figures for 2021 and 2016 refer to first-preference votes, while the 2024 figure refers to ballot papers.
Voter ID and access to polling stations
The Electoral Commission’s voter ID statistics concern people who tried to vote at polling stations in July 2024. A reported 0.08% were not issued a ballot paper because they lacked accepted identification. A further 0.25% were initially turned away; about two-thirds of those people returned with accepted ID.
The [Electoral Commission voter ID report] estimated that around 16,000 people across Great Britain were unable to vote in person because of the voter ID requirement. The equivalent number at the May 2023 elections in England was 14,000. The report estimated that around 4% of people who did not vote said the voter ID requirement was the reason.
Failure rates varied only slightly by nation: 0.08% in England, 0.09% in Scotland and 0.07% in Wales. Polling-station arrangements also showed a small difference. Stations with greeters recorded a 0.07% turn-away rate, compared with 0.08% at stations without greeters.
Awareness of the photo-ID requirement varied across the same three nations. It was 87% in England, 90% in Scotland and 89% in Wales at the 2024 general election. Awareness was lower among some groups: 71% among 18-to-24-year-olds and 76% among people from ethnic minority communities.
The report recorded about 210,000 applications for a Voter Authority Certificate between January 2023 and 26 June 2024. Around 57,000 applications were made between the election being called and the application deadline, while about 26,000 certificates were used as identification on 4 July 2024. The Commission estimated that around 750,000 registered electors did not have any other accepted ID. That last figure is an estimate of registered electors, not a count of people prevented from voting.
Electoral fraud allegations in 2024
In 2024, the Electoral Commission recorded 444 alleged electoral fraud cases across all election types. These are allegations recorded by the relevant process, not findings that every case resulted in a conviction or proven offence.
| Allegation category | Cases | Share of 444 cases |
|---|---|---|
| Campaigning | 284 | 64% |
| Voting | 84 | 19% |
| Registration | 46 | 10% |
| Nomination | 27 | 6% |
| Other | 4 | 1% |
The [Electoral Commission 2024 electoral fraud data] also recorded 17 alleged personation fraud cases reported by police forces in 2024. Within campaigning allegations, imprint-related issues made up 40%, while false statements about a candidate’s personal character or conduct made up 20% of campaigning allegations.
The category percentages describe the distribution of recorded allegations. They do not measure the probability that an individual voter will encounter fraud, and the personation figure is a separate police-recorded measure rather than a subdivision that should automatically be added to every category above.
Campaign spending at UK general elections
Total regulated campaign spending at the 2024 UK general election reached a record £94.5 million, according to the [Electoral Commission report on campaign spending at the 2024 UK Parliamentary general election]. Political parties spent £68.6 million, candidates spent £23.4 million and non-party campaigners, or NPCs, spent £2.6 million.
The historical totals reported by the Commission show the following pattern:
| UK general election year | Total regulated campaign spending |
|---|---|
| 2001 | £39.7 million |
| 2005 | £58.2 million |
| 2010 | £48.5 million |
| 2015 | £53.7 million |
| 2017 | £55.9 million |
| 2019 | £72.6 million |
| 2024 | £94.5 million |
At the 2024 election, Labour spent £7.2 million and the Conservative Party spent £7.0 million. Liberal Democrats spending was £3.2 million, followed by Reform UK at £1.3 million, the Scottish National Party at £0.8 million, the Green Party at £0.6 million and Plaid Cymru at £0.2 million.
England accounted for between 86% and 89% of total spending across UK general elections since 2001. In 2024, NPC spending was £2.3 million in England, £0.2 million in Scotland, £0.1 million in Wales and £0.02 million in Northern Ireland. The 2024 UK general election was the first election to use new higher spending limits.
The spending figures are regulated totals, so they describe expenditure within the reporting rules and period used by the Commission. They should not be treated as a complete measure of every political activity or every cost associated with an election.