Countdown on to launch online postal vote forms in Scotland and Wales

Holyrood and Cardiff Bay have just over six months to open online applications for postal votes in time for next year’s elections.

Scottish and Welsh voters currently have to fill in a paper form if they would like a postal or a proxy vote in Scottish Parliament or Senedd elections.

But the Absent Voting (Elections in Scotland and Wales) Bill has cleared both Houses of Parliament, paving the way for online applications.

Before peers called “content” to back the changes on Friday, local government minister Baroness Taylor of Stevenage told the Lords: “Our democracy remains at the heart of our Government’s purpose and mission.”

Former Wales secretary Lord Murphy of Torfaen, who steered the Bill through the upper House, said: “This is a small but important step in the right direction in the sense that now, at last, voters in Scotland and in Wales will be able to apply online for postal and proxy votes for both the Senedd, the Scottish Parliament, and the Scottish and Welsh local elections.”

He added: “Now that this Bill has gone through its parliamentary stages and will become law very soon – it is important, because there are six months left before those important elections next year – that the Scottish Government and the Welsh Government now properly do look at these new arrangements and ensure that people can vote by proxy or by post at the next Senedd election and next Scottish Parliament election.”

He continued: “I will continue to vote at Llantarnam Church Hall.”

Scottish Parliament and Senedd elections will be held on May 7 next year.

Voters in UK parliamentary elections could already apply online for postal or proxy ballots throughout Britain.