Prisoners Votes Act 2010

Prisoners Votes Act 2010



NEW ELECTORAL LAW TO BE INTRODUCED

A new law which will allow 73,000 disenfranchised citizens to vote at the May 6 2010 General Election is about to come into effect.

Justice Minister Bridget Prentice today confirmed the creation of a new statute, the Prisoners Votes Act 2010.

The Act will come into force on 1st of April 2010.

The move is to ensure that the Government fully complies with its obligations under the European Convention, and is in direct response to the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe meeting on 2-4 March 2010 when the UK was informed that the next General Election would be unlawful unless this measure was implemented.

Justice Minister Bridget Prentice said:

‘The Government is determined to ensure people are not denied access to the ballot box simply by fact of their unpopular status within society. The fast track nature of this Act will ensure all convicted prisoners, regardless of the seriousness of offence and length of sentence, will be able to exercise their postal ballot’.

Prisons Minister Willy Bach said:

‘The Government appreciates the assistance provided by John Hirst, who is the author of Jailhouselawyer’s Blog, in the drafting of this long awaited Act which he has long campaigned for to be included on the statute books. I met Mr Hirst at a secret meeting when I went to the East Riding of Yorkshire on 19th of March 2010, and he graciously accepted the Government’s surrender terms’.

Ends


Prisoners Votes Act 2010



Prisoners Votes Act 2010


An Act to enable all convicted prisoners to be part of the democratic process by ensuring that the principle of universal suffrage extends to all those in custody.

Be it enacted by the Queen’s Most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the same as follows:-

1. To fully comply with our obligations under the Convention, the franchise is to be extended to all sentenced prisoners, regardless of the nature of the crime, and length of sentence imposed by a court.

2. Prisoners will exercise their human right to vote under Article 3 of the First Protocol of the Convention, by means of postal ballot.

3. Prisoners must register at the address they lived in immediately prior to arrest. Those prisoners who were registered as No Fixed Abode upon entering prison may vote from their present prison address.

4. This Act may be cited as the Prisoners Votes Act 2010.

5. This Act shall come into operation on the first day of April, 2010, from 12.01am.

6. This Act shall cease to have effect from 12.01pm on the first day of April, 2010.

7. Section 3 of the Representation of the People Act 1983 is omitted.

Update: The one person I did not expect to fool with this is Phil Wheatley, Director General of the National Offender Management Service!