UK must give prisoners the right to vote in next general election, says Europe

Published on Monday 8 March 2010 21:04

THE forthcoming general election will be in breach of human rights unless the government gives prisoners the vote, Europe's human rights watchdog warned last night.

The declaration from the Council of Europe's committee of ministers comes six years after judges ruled that the UK's total ban on votes for prisoners is illegal.

But the ban is still in place and pressure is mounting for it to be repealed in line with the Human Rights Court judgment.

In a decision published in Strasbourg, the committee of ministers voiced "serious concern" that the ruling has still not been applied in the UK in the run-up to a general election, and said the growing number of people affected by the voting ban could mean more human rights cases against the government.

The committee, made up of the foreign ministers of the 47 Council of Europe countries, meets to ensure governments comply with human rights rulings and says it will consider the issue of prisoners voting again in June – probably after the general election.

It said that in the meantime, the UK government should at least bring in stop-gap measures to bring it into line with its human rights obligations.

It "strongly urged the authorities to rapidly adopt measures … to ensure the execution of the court's judgment before the forthcoming general election".

Prison Reform Trust director Juliet Lyon said: "This decision is profoundly embarrassing for the government and places on it a clear and urgent obligation to overturn the blanket ban on sentenced prisoners voting.

"Despite six years of prevarication there is still time remaining before the next election for the government to amend the existing legislation."