New Polling Body Agrees Restrictions

Member companies of the British Polling Council (BPC) have agreed to restrictions on the publication of poll data, following recommendations by The Electoral Commission in its report on the European Elections. The agreement prohibits the publication before the closure of polls of separate data about those who have already voted (eg by post).

Companies may include data from those who have already voted aggregated with responses about voting intentions in figures released during polling, but will not divulge any results relating specifically to the subset of those who have already voted. This includes the number or percentage of people who have voted.

The BPC's statement stresses that election and referendum campaign polls need to be representative of all voters, hence the need to include interviews with people who have voted by post 'or other remote method' including 'other forms that may be introduced' - presumably with the Internet in mind.

BPC members include MORI, NOP, YouGov, ORB, TNS System 3, Populus and CommunicateResearch.

The precise wording, published on the BPC web site at www.britishpollingcouncil.org , is:

'BPC members will publish voting figures for the whole sample (including people who have voted as well as those who have not done so) in accordance with the BPC rules of disclosure. However (as a specific exception to these rules) BPC members will NOT place in the public domain or cause to be published ANY data that relates specifically to the sub sample of people who have already voted at the time a poll is taken including their number within the total sample.

'Such data, if it is collected, may only be published after the polling stations have closed'.

Additional complications are envisaged in future elections when it may happen that 'a clear majority of voters cast their votes before polling day either remotely or by post' - the BPC intends to discuss further guidelines to cover this with the Electoral Commission soon.

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.