Representation of the People Act 1983
Encyclopedia
The Representation of the People Act 1983 (c. 2) is an Act
Act of Parliament
An Act of Parliament is a statute enacted as primary legislation by a national or sub-national parliament. In the Republic of Ireland the term Act of the Oireachtas is used, and in the United States the term Act of Congress is used.In Commonwealth countries, the term is used both in a narrow...

 of the Parliament of the United Kingdom
Parliament of the United Kingdom
The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body in the United Kingdom, British Crown dependencies and British overseas territories, located in London...

. It changed the British electoral process
Election
An election is a formal decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual to hold public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy operates since the 17th century. Elections may fill offices in the legislature, sometimes in the...

 in the following ways:
  • Amended the Representation of the People Act 1969
    Representation of the People Act 1969
    The Representation of the People Act 1969 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It extended suffrage to 18-20 year olds. Previously, only those 21 or over were permitted to vote...

    .
  • Stated that a convicted person cannot vote at any parliamentary or local election whilst in prison.
  • Laid down the appeals process in local elections


The Act also regulates how political parties and people acting on their behalf are to behave before and during an election.

Election expenses

Sections 72 to 90 control the total election expenses that can be spent on behalf of a candidate.

During the time limit of the election, all money spent on the promotion of a candidate must be authorized by his election agent. This includes the cost of holding public meetings, organising public displays, issuing advertisements, circulars, or otherwise presenting the candidate's views and the extent or nature of his backing or disparaging another candidate. It does not include travel expenses from home or similar personal expenses.

The expenses limit for the campaign (which is enforceable due to it all having to be authorized by one person) is £100,000 for a parliamentary by-election
By-election
A by-election is an election held to fill a political office that has become vacant between regularly scheduled elections....

, but is approximately £5,483 plus either 6.2p or 4.6p for every registered voter in the district.

Publicity at parliamentary elections

Sections 91 to 94 entitle the candidate to one free mailshot of election material to all voters in the constituency. It is also illegal to print fake polling cards.

Election meetings

Sections 95 to 98 entitle the candidate to hold public meetings free of charge in schools and other public buildings in the constituency, and pay only the cost price for making the rooms available.

Agency by election officials and canvassing by police officers

Sections 99 makes it illegal for officers in charge of administering an election to be involved in any of the election campaigns.

Section 100 forbids a police officer from canvassing in any election which overlaps with his police area.

Conveyance of voters to and from the poll

Sections 101 to 105http://www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts1983/pdf/ukpga_19830002_en.pdf made it illegal to hire or lend taxis and buses to give lifts of voters to the ballot box. These sections were repealed by Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000
Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000
The Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that sets out how political parties, elections and referendums are to be regulated in the United Kingdom...

http://www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts2000/ukpga_20000041_en_32#sch18

False statements as to candidates

Section 106 makes it illegal to publish any false statement of fact in relation to the candidate's personal character or conduct, unless he can show that he had reasonable grounds for believing that statement to be true. It is also illegal to publish a false statement of a candidate's withdrawal from an election.

In September 2007 Miranda Grell
Miranda Grell
Miranda Agnes Jayne Grell is a former Labour Party politician and councillor for the London Borough of Waltham Forest. She was the first person to be found guilty of making false statements under the Representation of the People Act 1983 and banned for holding public office for three years as a...

 was found guilty under this section when she made allegations of paedophilia and having sex with teenage boys against her gay opponent during the United Kingdom local elections, 2006
United Kingdom local elections, 2006
Local government elections took place in England on Thursday 4 May 2006. Polling stations were open between 7:00 and 22:00.All London borough council seats were up for election, as well as a third of the seats on each of the metropolitan borough councils, and a third of some unitary authorities...

. Convictions under this law are so rare that this was thought to be the first.

In November 2010, Labour MP Phil Woolas
Phil Woolas
Philip James Woolas was a British Labour Party politician who was the Member of Parliament for Oldham East and Saddleworth from his election in 1997 to 2010. He was the Minister of State for Borders and Immigration in the Home Office, as well as being the Minister of State for the Treasury...

 was found by an electoral court to have breached section 106. The judges ruled that a by-election
Oldham East and Saddleworth by-election, 2011
The 2011 by-election in Oldham East and Saddleworth was a by-election for the Parliament of the United Kingdom's House of Commons constituency of Oldham East and Saddleworth held on 13 January 2011...

 for the seat should be held. Woolas said that he would apply for a judicial review into the ruling. In a statement released through his lawyer, Woolas stated that "this election petition raised fundamental issues about the freedom to question and criticise politicians" and that it "will inevitably chill political speech". The judicial review failed to overturn the ruling of the election court.

Corrupt withdrawal from candidature

Section 107 makes it illegal to bribe a candidate to withdraw from an election.

Premises not to be used as committee rooms

Section 108 made it illegal to hire a room in a pub for holding a campaign committee meeting. This section was repealed by the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000
Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000
The Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that sets out how political parties, elections and referendums are to be regulated in the United Kingdom...

.

Payments for exhibition of election notices

Section 109 said that you couldn't hire special advertising spaces (e.g. on the sides of houses) for displaying campaign posters, unless it was an ordinary advertising billboard used for normal advertising.

Details to appear on election publications

Section 110 states that any material, leaflet or advertisement for a candidate in an election must include the names and addresses of the printer, the promoter, and the person on behalf of whom the material is being published.

In December 2008 a Liverpool City Liberal Democrats
Liberal Democrats
The Liberal Democrats are a social liberal political party in the United Kingdom which supports constitutional and electoral reform, progressive taxation, wealth taxation, human rights laws, cultural liberalism, banking reform and civil liberties .The party was formed in 1988 by a merger of the...

 Councillor was found guilty under this section for delivering leaflets during the United Kingdom local elections, 2007
United Kingdom local elections, 2007
The 2007 UK local government elections were held on 3 May 2007. These elections took place in most of England and all of Scotland. There were no local government elections in Wales though the Welsh Assembly had a general election on the same day. There were no local government elections in Northern...

 purporting to be on behalf of The United Socialist Party
United Socialist Party (UK)
The United Socialist Party is a British political organisation based in Liverpool. It was formed by a number of former Liverpool Dockers who had been active in the strike of the 1990s...

(but lacking the necessary names and addresses) attacking the Labour candidate for crossing a picket line during a strike, and his wife (who is a sitting councillor) of leaving council meetings early to learn lap dancing.

Parliamentary election rules

Schedule 1 of the Act lays out in complete form the rules for running a parliamentary election and how the nomination papers should be handled.http://www.statutelaw.gov.uk/content.aspx?LegType=All+Legislation&title=Representation+of+the+People's+Act&Year=1983&searchEnacted=0&extentMatchOnly=0&confersPower=0&blanketAmendment=0&sortAlpha=0&TYPE=QS&PageNumber=1&NavFrom=0&parentActiveTextDocId=2353486&ActiveTextDocId=2353765&filesize=9627
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