Author: Nicky Milsted

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The UK’s Electoral Data Deficit: A vision for digital modernisation

Professor Toby S. James & Professor Paul Bernal, January 2023

“the UK’s electoral machinery was established in Victorian times, and large parts of the data architecture in the electoral world remains Victorian.”

This report outlines the electoral data democratic deficit in the UK and its consequences for democracy, and makes the case for urgently establishing a comprehensive architecture and approach to electoral data to enable a fairer and more inclusive democracy.

The report finds considerable problems with the current elections data infrastructure and approach. There are significant data blackholes – electoral data which is unavailable, but which would be in the public interest to have collected and published. Data is often collated in unworkable formats which restricts usability, severely limiting the ability to develop interventions to improve voter registration and turnout. There is considerable inequality in who has access to data, meaning those who are seeking to support greater equality of participation are heavily restricted or burdened in attempting to learn what works. There are also monitoring gaps in how key electoral data is used, including individual level data on whether people have voted at an election and their history of voting at previous elections. This is often being used without citizens’ knowledge of who and for what purpose the data is being accessed. There is also substantial untapped potential where electoral data could be used to support citizens to be better informed, for electoral institutions to be much more transparent, and for a wide range of actors (including regulators, media, and civil society) to leverage data to promote participation in elections.

This report provides a short- and longer-term plan for modernising the electoral data architecture and approach to ensure it is fit for purpose for the 21st century

Download the full report here

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SMK Awards: David & Goliath winner 2022 announced

A group of CYA and some of their supporters travelling to Facebook HQ in London. Photo credit: Slawomir Furgalski

JRRT is proud to sponsor the David & Goliath Award at the SMK Awards, which celebrates individuals or small campaign groups that take on much bigger organisations and challenge vested power.

Our Award sponsorship is made in memory of our friend and former Director, Lord David Shutt.

And the 2022 winner has now been announced at a hybrid virtual/real life ceremony in London…

Congratulations to the Coventry Youth Activists (CYA) 

The CYA’s #FacebookHasNoStandards campaign wants to change the way disability hate and ableism is handled by social media platforms.

There was a 52% increase in online disability hate crime online in 2021, yet attempts to report posts were usually met with the same response – that they did not breach Facebook’s Community Standards. CYA’s view was that, if Facebook had any standards, they would not allow hateful, ableist posts to remain on their platform.

CYA want Facebook to make the platform safer for disabled people. They have asked Facebook to remove ableist comments and posts, to highlight and ‘box-over’ reported posts and comments whilst they are investigated, and to invite a CYA team member to join the Facebook oversight board.

In making the award, SMK said: “The difference the campaign has had on the young people in the group has been huge. Young people with anxiety who would often find social situations overwhelming stood outside Facebook HQ sharing their own story. Young people with learning disabilities often excluded by society ran online meetings with people in positions of power to hold them to account. We think the campaign is extraordinary for its ambition, impact and empowering energy.”

 

Visit www.smk.org.uk/awards for more details …

 

IMAGE CREDIT: A group of CYA and some of their
supporters travelling to Facebook HQ in London.
Photo by: Slawomir Furgalski

 

 

You can watch the full 2022 Award ceremony below

 

 

 

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SMK Awards 2022: Shortlist announced!

We are the proud sponsor of the David & Goliath cateogory at the Sheila McKechnie Foundation (SMK) National Campaigner Awards, a celebration of the best campaigns and campaigners from across the United Kingdom.

The David & Goliath category recognises individuals or small campaign groups that take on much bigger organisations and challenge vested power. Our sponsorship is made in memory of our friend and former Director, Lord David Shutt.

 

This year’s shortlisted nominees are:

  • End Our Cladding Scandal; their campaign calls on the Government to lead an urgent, national effort to fix the building safety crisis exposed by the Grenfell tragedy.
  • Operation Noah’s Bright Now campaign calls on Churches to accelerate the clean energy transition by divesting from fossil fuel companies and investing in climate solutions.

 

 

Join the virtual awards ceremony

You can discover the winner of the JRRT-sponsored David & Goliath Award, and all of the other categories in this year’s SMK National Campaigner Awards, at the virtual Awards ceremony.

It will be live streamed for the first time from the newsroom of SMK’s media partner Tortoise on Thursday 19 May 2022 from 4pm to 5.15pm.

Find out more and book your free space now!

 

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JRRT: Accredited Living Wage Funder

The Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust is proud to be recently accredited as a Living Wage Funder. We have joined more than 50 other funders in committing to tackle low pay by championing the real Living Wage.

The real Living Wage is a voluntary, hourly rate of pay that is based on the actual cost of living.  The Living Wage rates are re-calculated every autumn by the Living Wage Commission.

It is currently calculated as £12.60 per hour UK-wide and £13.85 per hour in London (2025 figures).

Ranging from local authorities to charitable trusts and foundations, corporate, science and capital funders, Living Wage Funders are working hard to tackle social injustice and poverty.

As part of our commitment, we encourage our grantees to ensure that all posts which are wholly or partially funded by us pay the real Living Wage (unless there are particular reasons for this not to happen). And we engage with our applicants early in the grant application process to ask them to cost up their proposals accordingly.

Fiona Weir, JRRT CEO said, “JRRT’s accreditation as a Living Wage Funder reflects our core values. As a Trust, we support organisations seeking to address imbalances of power; becoming a Living Wage Funder and encouraging all our grantees to pay the real Living Wage is a commitment that we are proud to promote.”

Organisations do not need to be accredited Living Wage Employers to apply to JRRT, but we do encourage organisations to consider whether this is a possibility for them. You can find out more about the scheme, including how to apply, on the Living Wage Foundation website.

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Introducing: Involve and the Network for Democracy

JRRT is today announcing that it has agreed a three-year grant award of £350,000 to Involve to set up a Democracy Network, which includes a contribution of £50,000 from the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust (JRCT) to the first year of this new initiative.

In 2020, we commissioned Networking for Democracy, an analysis of sector needs and perspectives. It concludes that building better connections within and outside the sector is a priority capacity building need; and that there is a good case and support for building a “network”.

Following on from this work, and having reached out to groups and individuals working in the democracy space to craft a Call for Proposals, we are thrilled to announce that Involve has been commissioned to take forward work on incubating, expanding and coordinating a Network for Democracy over the next three years.

Involve is the UK’s public participation charity with a vision of a more vibrant democracy, with people at the heart of decision-making. They recognise that the democracy sector is made up of a great diversity of groups and organisations across the country. Work to develop the network will begin from June, with three aims in mind:

  • Connecting: Developing a trusted, strong, diverse and well-functioning democracy network, with high engagement in network activities and an expanding reach to new groups;
  • Information sharing and capacity building: Increasing the knowledge, skills, resources and impact of members; and,
  • Vision and influence: Expanding the collective influence of the network and its members, including receiving increased media and political attention.

Tim Hughes from Involve explains: “The initial focus of activities will be on co-developing the network with people from across the democracy sector and exploring how the network can help to support and boost the impact of existing initiatives. Ultimately, we want to build a broad and diverse coalition of people passionate about democracy that reaches far and wide across the country, and enables us to collectively shape our democratic future.”

Fiona Weir, CEO of JRRT, says: “The growing collaboration across the democracy sector is encouraging and vital given the multiple and serious challenges to democracy today. JRRT is making a multi-year commitment to funding a Democracy Network to strengthen efforts in this space. 

We were impressed by Involve’s commitment to an open and co-creative approach that will build trust and sustain collaboration, alongside their grasp of how a network could add value to existing initiatives, building the collective power and influence of the sector.”

Katharine Knox, JRCT Power and Accountability Programme Manager says: “We are delighted to be supporting the establishment of this new initiative to build collaboration in the democracy sector. The challenges we are facing in relation to democratic accountability at this time in the UK warrant supporting the sector to pull together to maximise information sharing, coordination and connections to increase the sector’s influence. We look forward to working with JRRT and Involve in the year ahead.”

Get involved

To stay in touch with the  Democracy Network and help to shape its development, please sign up here.

Or get in touch via DemocracyNetwork@involve.org.uk 

Regular updates on the activities and events of the Network for Democracy can be seen in the free monthly sector newsletter, Democracy Action. Subscribe here today!

 

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SMK Awards: David & Goliath winner 2021!

JRRT is proud to sponsor the David & Goliath Award at the SMK Awards, which celebrates individuals or small campaign groups that take on much bigger organisations and challenge vested power.

And the 2021 winner has now been announced at a virtual ceremony…

Congratulations to the UK Overseas Fossil Fuels Campaign!

The UK Overseas Fossil Fuel Campaign, led by a small number of campaigners from a diverse range of organisations, ‘used every tool in the box’ to bring taxpayer funding of fossil fuels to an end. The campaign evolved into a well-run coalition effort, which helped set a new global standard for climate action.

For decades, the UK provided billions in taxpayers’ money for fossil fuel projects all over the world. The UK taxpayer has helped support coal mines in Russia, oil refineries in Bahrain and gas projects in war-torn Mozambique. This financial support has made climate change worse, and locked developing countries into fossil fuel use instead of moving towards clean energy.

By lobbying MPs, staging noisy protests, publishing media-friendly investigations, and allying with communities affected by UK-funded projects, the campaign turned a highly technical issue into a simple message that resonated across the political spectrum – ‘stop funding fossil fuels overseas’.

In December last year, the Government announced that all taxpayer support for fossil fuel projects overseas would end. The UK is the first major country to make this commitment and campaigners predicted that if the UK moved first other countries would follow. Within weeks, it was announced that the new Biden administration would follow the UK and end their overseas fossil fuel support. Several EU countries are known to be planning similar moves. The campaign has started a domino effect.

Adam McGibbon, campaign coordinator, says: “It’s really exciting to have won the David & Goliath Award! In just three years, stopping the UK Government’s multi-billion taxpayer finance for fossil fuels overseas moved from being an ‘impossible’ idea to a reality. This was a campaign run on a shoestring budget, but with a massive global impact. It’s been really encouraging to hear about other governments who are set to follow the UK’s lead. The fossil fuel era is ending – this campaign hopefully will help bring that end date a little closer.”

Organisations involved in the campaign are Global Witness, E3G, Tearfund, CAFOD, Christian Aid, Friends of the Earth (EWNI), Greenpeace, Bretton Woods Project, Oil Change International and Global Justice Now.

Visit www.smk.org.uk/awards for more details …

And watch the full 2021 Award ceremony below

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Lord Trevor Smith: In memoriam

Lord Trevor Smith

It is with great sadness that we have learnt of the death of Lord Trevor Smith, who served as a director of JRRT from 1975 until 2006, acting as Chair from 1987 until 1999.

During his tenure, the focus of the Trust was firmly turned towards issues of constitutional change and democratic reform, and it was under his leadership that the Trust changed its name from the Joseph Rowntree Social Services Trust to the Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust.  The Trust was an early supporter of Charter 88; launched in the New Statesman, the Charter advocated for a programme of institutional change and constitutional reforms in the areas of devolution, human rights, and freedom of information. A further important initiative instigated by Trevor, was the State of the Nation opinion polls, the first of which was taken in March 1991. The polls gathered information on public attitudes to constitutional reform and other Trust concerns. Trevor was also central in the establishment of Democratic Audit, a research body at Essex University, which audited the democratic performance of the British constitution.

Trevor made full use of his eloquence and powers of persuasion to engage the Trust in much more proactive political activity, including helping fund the Scottish Constitutional Convention which started the inexorable movement towards setting up the Scottish Parliament.  He was also instrumental in securing support for the New Statesman at a time when it could have gone out of existence.

Outside of the Trust, Trevor was an esteemed political scientist with academic posts at the University of Exeter, the University of Hull, and Queen Mary College at the University of London, before taking up the appointment of Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ulster (1991-1999), where he was heavily involved in the Northern Ireland peace process, taking a non-sectarian role. He was a long-standing member of the Liberal Party (and later, the Liberal Democrats). Aged 22, he contested the 1959 General Election for the Liberal Party in West Lewisham; he was the youngest candidate of any party that year.

Trevor was knighted “for services to higher education” in 1996 and became a working Liberal Democrat peer in 1997. He was spokesman in the House on Northern Ireland and constitutional affairs.

Trevor had a formidable political brain, unusually combining academic prowess with a strong grasp of practical, campaigning politics.  His steadfast dedication, deep knowledge and friendship will be sorely missed by all who knew him, as will his acerbic wit. Here at the Trust, we are all grateful for his immense contributions to our work, and our continued focus on political and democratic reform is testament to his energy and determination to make a real difference.