To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, for what reason a young person's railcard is not valid for use in local and national elections as voter ID; and if he will take steps to make the young person's railcard a valid form of voter ID.
This answer is the replacement for a previous holding answer.
Answered on
27 April 2023
This answer is a correction from the original answer.
The Government carefully considered a wide range of documents when selecting which acceptable forms of identification to use at polling stations . It is essential that the list of accepted identification includes those owned by the majority of the electorate, but also that the list can be effectively administered by polling station staff. Evidence from pilots showed that use of a young person's rail card was very low where they were trialled in Woking in 2018. Young person's railcards are also generally offered in digital and physical formats but digital formats are not currently accepted as voter identification. It was judged that allowing a physical version of a young person's railcard but not a digital version could lead to confusion.
Cabinet Office research shows that 98% of electors already own a form of photographic identification (in date or expired) that is accepted under the changes and this increases to 99% for those ages 18-29. A number of student cards are accredited by the Proof of Age Standards Scheme, and so are accepted. This includes the National Union of Students endorsed 'TOTUM +' student card, and a Young Scot card, meaning there are nationally available student cards that will be accepted as identification in polling stations.
The Government has committed in legislation to review the voter identification policy after implementation and, as set out previously, will consider appropriate changes to the list of accepted identification documents as part of this process.
Original answer
The Government carefully considered a wide range of documents when selecting which forms of identification would be accepted for use at polling stations. It is essential that the list of accepted forms of identification includes those that are owned by the majority of the electorate, but also that the list is finite and so can be effectively administered by polling station staff. Evidence from the voter identification pilots showed that use of young person's rail card was very low against concessionary travel passes for older people, where they were trialled in Woking in 2018. Additionally, young person's railcards are generally offered in both digital and hard copy formats and, although it is intended that digital formats may be accepted n future, the Government did not specifically include digital format documents for the roll out of the policy, in order to support its effective delivery. Allowing the hard copy version of a young person's railcard but not a digital version could lead to voter confusion.
Cabinet Office research shows that 98% of electors already own a form of photographic identification (in date or expired) that is accepted under the changes and this increases to 99% for those ages 18-29. A number of student cards are accredited by the Proof of Age Standards Scheme, and so are accepted. This includes the National Union of Students endorsed 'TOTUM +' student card, and a Young Scot card, meaning there are nationally available student cards that will be accepted as identification in polling stations.
The Government has committed in legislation to review the voter identification policy after implementation and will consider appropriate changes to the list of accepted identification documents as part of this process.