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Trevelyan House

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Committee on Standards in Public Life Eleventh Inquiry

The Committee on Standards in Public Life published a report of their Eleventh Inquiry, 'Review of The Electoral Commission', on 18 January 2007.

This review of us was the first since the Committee's Fifth Inquiry: 'The Funding of Political Parties in the United Kingdom', and looked at our mandate, governance, and accountability.

The Eleventh inquiry included:

an 'issues and questions' paper focusing on responses made during the inquiry's consultation period, during which time any individual could submit evidence about us
case studies and research performed by third parties on behalf of the Committee to deepen it's understanding of the core issues
a comparative study of Electoral Commissions in Canada and the United States
public hearings in London, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast
sessions where stakeholders were invited to give evidence to the inquiry about us

Our Chairman Sam Younger and our Chief Executive, Peter Wardle, gave evidence for us on 13 June and 14 September.

The report acknowledges the necessary and vital part that we play in our democracy. We welcome calls by the Committee for stronger powers to oversee elections and regulate party finances, and support nearly all of the recommendations that it makes.

Many of these are changes we urged in our own evidence to the Committee, and many we have either already made or can put in place very quickly.

On 19 March 2007 we unveiled our plans to enforce standards in democracy. We also produced a paper summarising where there are differences and points of agreement between the Committee's recommendations and our own vision for the future.