Electoral Register: British Nationals Abroad
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 4 November 2025 to Question 85523 on Electoral Register: British Nationals Abroad, what steps he plans to take to ensure that overseas electors receive their ballot papers on time.
Answered by Samantha Dixon
The responsibility for arranging the timing and dispatch of postal votes sits with the Returning Officer for each electoral area. As such, it falls to them to assess the likelihood of an elector’s postal ballot pack being dispatched, returned and completed before the close of poll. The Electoral Commission provides guidance to Returning Officers in this regard, including advising them to prioritise overseas postal ballot packs.
The Government is committed to fixing the foundations of our electoral processes, including making changes to help build more resilience into the postal voting system.
As set out in the policy paper, Restoring trust in our democracy: Our strategy for modern and secure elections on 17 July 2025, the Government will introduce a package of measures intended to improve the resilience and capacity of the postal voting system overall. These measures include moving the postal vote application deadline three working days earlier in time. The deadline for candidate nominations will also be moved earlier in time in order to allow Returning Officers more time to proof the ballot papers for printers, giving more time for the next part of the process to get underway, and in particular to enable postal ballot papers to be printed and issued to postal voters at an earlier point.
These changes will benefit all administrators and voters, including those living overseas.
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