Prisoners to get right to vote – but only if serving less than four years

New legislation would see some inmates given chance to cast choice at ballot box, but only to elect MPs or MEPs
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hands on prison bars
Prisoners serving less than four years would be allowed to vote in parliamentary elections, under the proposals. Photograph: Vincent O'Byrne/Alamy

Only prisoners serving sentences of less than fours years will be able to vote under legislation to be introduced into parliament next year.

Those inside for longer terms will remain deprived of their right to cast a ballot while behind bars, according to an announcement by the Cabinet Office today.

The extension of the franchise follows the UK government's defeat in a series of European court battles. The prime minister has made clear, however, that he was doing so reluctantly and would prefer to retain the ban which has been in place since 1870.

The new legislation will grant prisoners the right to vote only in elections to Westminster and the European parliament. They would not be able to participate in ballots for directly elected police chiefs, for example.

Sentencing judges will also be given the discretion to stop those given a jail term of less than four years from casting a ballot while they are behind bars.

A Downing Street spokesman said: "We are responding to court judgments. We have to comply with those judgments and we don't want to get into a situation where we are compensating prisoners because we have not complied."

It is not something the prime minister would do if he were given a free choice on this."

Announcing the proposed restrictions on prisoners' voting rights ahead of a parliamentary statement on 20 December , the constitutional reform minister, Mark Harper, said: "The government has brought these proposals forward as a result of a court ruling which it is obliged to implement. This is not a choice, it is a legal obligation."

If a prisoner is allowed to keep their right to vote, they would do so either by post or proxy, according to the Cabinet Office. Prisoners will not be registered at their prison but at their former address or an area where they have a local connection.

In 2005, the European court of human rights ruled in the case of John Hirst that the existing ban on prisoners being able to vote was contrary to Article 3, Protocol 1 of the European convention on human rights – the right to free and fair elections.

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