Backbench Business — Voting by Prisoners — 10 Feb 2011 at 17:37

The majority of MPs voted against prisoners being able to vote; except those imprisoned for contempt, default or on remand.

The motion approved in this vote was:

• That this House
• notes the ruling of the European Court of Human Rights in Hirst v . the United Kingdom in which it held that there had been no substantive debate by members of the legislature on the continued justification for maintaining a general restriction on the right of prisoners to vote;
• acknowledges the treaty obligations of the UK; is of the opinion that legislative decisions of this nature should be a matter for democratically-elected lawmakers; and
• supports the current situation in which no prisoner is able to vote except those imprisoned for contempt, default or on remand.

Debate in Parliament | Source |