Human rights—Prisoners—Right to vote

Judge Garlicki (President), Judges Bratza, Mijovic, Bjorgvinsson, Bianku, Poalelungi and De Gaetano, and L Early (Section Registrar), 23 Nov 2010

The United Kingdom must remove the blanket ban on prisoner voting in s 3 of the Representation of the People Act 1983 (RPA 1983) and s 8 of the European Parliamentary Elections Act 2002 (EPE 2002) within six months.
At the material times, the applicants were all serving prisoners. The Electoral Registration Officer refused their applications for registration to vote on the basis of their status as convicted persons detained in a penal institution.

Section 3 of RPA 1983 imposed a blanket restriction on all convicted prisoners in detention irrespective of the length of their sentence and irrespective of the nature or gravity of their offence and their individual circumstances. The blanket restriction introduced by s 3 of RPA 1983 was extended to elections to the European Parliament by s 8 of EPE 2002.