UK Government could allow some prisoners to vote

The UK Government is said to be considering allowing a limited number of serving prisoners to vote for the first time, in what would be a significant concession to rulings of the European Court of Human Rights.

According to a report in the Sunday Times, Justice Secretary David Lidington has circulated plans to allow those serving less than 12 months, and allowed out to attend rehabilitation courses or perform community service, to go home to vote if they are still on the electoral roll. Prisoners would not be allowed to apply to rejoin the roll and would drop off it after a year. 

The number of prisoners who would be affected is thought to be in the hundreds.

Since 2005 the Government has held out against implementing a ruling of the European Court of Human Rights that the current blanket ban on prisoners voting infringes the European Convention, at risk of incurring liability to pay compensation for doing so. It is not certain that the reported proposals would go far enough to satisfy the court, but they are likely to be resisted all the same by many MPs, especially Conservative backbenchers.