The right to vote in the UK is considered by many to be a privilege as well as an entitlement, and that persons who are convicted of an offence serious enough to warrant a term in prison have cast aside that privilege and entitlement for the duration of their sentence. Successive UK Governments have held to the view that the right to vote forms part of the social contract between individuals and the state, and that loss of the right to vote, reflected in the current law, is a proper and proportionate punishment for breaches of the social contract that resulted in imprisonment. That remains this Government’s position, and that of a number of other Council of Europe states.

On Thursday, 2 February 2006, the Government committed to consult on the issue of voting rights for convicted UK prisoners, following the 6 October 2005 judgment of the European Court of Human Rights Grand Chamber in the case of Hirst. Today the Government have published a consultation document that considers the principles of prisoner enfranchisement and the options available to the UK following the judgment. The judgment decided that total disenfranchisement for all convicted prisoners was not within the terms of the convention.

The paper sets out the background to the case of Hirst v UK, the conclusions reached by the Grand Chamber, and proposes a number of potential options on which the Government would welcome views. This is a contentious issue. The Government are firm in their belief that individuals who have committed an offence serious enough to warrant a term of imprisonment should not be able to vote while in prison. None the less, we recognise that we must decide how to respond to the Grand Chamber's judgment.

The Government welcome responses from all sides of the debate. We encourage respondents to consider thoroughly the background material provided and each option before submitting a response. The final date for submitting a response is 7 March 2007. Following the results of this consultation, the Government will produce a second stage consultation document, exploring how any proposed change to current arrangements might work in practice. Once the consultation process has concluded and views have been considered, we will put proposals to Parliament, which must, ultimately, debate and decide on an issue as significant as this.