Background

In our February post “Spiritual influence” and elections, we considered the early case law and the current statutes relating to “spiritual injury” within section 115 Representation of the People Act 1983, as amended. We suggested that there were some difficulties in the extrapolation of early case law on this issue to present-day situations, but noted that some aspects of “clerical influence” identified by O’Brien J in Dalton v Fulham [1] appeared to fall within the “non-party campaigning” provisions of the Transparency of Lobbying (etc) Act 2014.

A project to review electoral law was announced by the Law Commission on 19 July 2011 and on 9 December 2014, in conjunction with the Scottish Law Commission and the Northern Ireland Law Commission, it launched the joint consultation Electoral Law which reviews UK electoral law, including “spiritual influence”, and makes provisional proposals or asks questions about its reform. The consultation closed on 31 March 2015. Continue reading →