These Council Elections  will now go ahead, the Government has announced.

The business of the House of Commons on Monday 23 February 2026 will include a Debate on the Local Authorities ( Changes to Years of Ordinary Elections ( England ) Order 2026 ( and an associated regret motion).

A MHCLG publication sets out POLICY SUMMARIES for the Representation of the People Bill introduced in the House of Commons on 12 February 2026.

A House of Commons Research Briefing discusses FLEXIBLE VOTING PILOTS for English LOCAL ELECTIONS in May 2026 and 2027.

A Welsh Government Consultation, published on 20 October 2025, seeks views, by 12 January 2026, on proposed changes to Welsh Local ELECTION RULES.

The consultation draft Senedd Cymru ( Representation of the People ) Order 2025, to come into force ahead of the planned 2026 Senedd Elections, outlines(1)  the procedure for conducting Elections to the Senedd, (2) how the Election and its campaign should be managed, and (iii) the processes for legal challenges to an Election.

The majority decision in MAHARAJ v CABINET OF REPUBLIC OF TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO (2023) UKPC 17 concerned substituting four years for three years as the periods of office of Councillors and Aldermen, including apparently in the case of incumbents.  If so, incumbents would serve for an additional year with elections postponed for one year.  A judicial review challenge was brought to such a change to the basis upon which the incumbents had been elected.  The Privy Council observe (para 31) that it is an “essential element” of any democratic form of government that the electorate choose their representatives for a “limited period”: “The right to vote out representatives is as important as the right to vote in representatives”.  At the end of the period for which they were elected, the electorate has the right to decide whether they wish the incumbent representatives to remain in office, assuming they stand for re-election.  The Privy Council add (para 34) that it is inimical to a representative democracy that the representatives are chosen by anyone other than the electorate.

The principle of legality applied (paras 38-43 inc).  That is a principle of statutory interpretation that, in the absence of clear words, legislation will not be construed as being contrary to fundamental common law rights.  Fundamental rights or the rule of law cannot be overridden by general or ambiguous words. The fact that the democratic process, and the voting rights of individuals in that process, are derived solely from statute, and are not a product of the common law, does not diminish their fundamental importance.  Ambiguities in legislation are resolved in favour of democratic rights: “…the central importance of the statutory regime for democratic government … requires the use of clear language.”  The change should be interpreted as not applying to incumbents, rule the 3-2 majority of the Privy Council.

The Elections Act 2022 has 7 Parts and 12 Schedules. Part 1 relates to administration and conduct of elections.  It includes provisions on voter identification, postal and proxy voting, undue influence, assistance with voting for persons with disabilities.  Part 2 relates to overseas electors and EU citizens, Part 3 to the Electoral Commission, Part 4 to regulation of expenditure, Part 5 to disqualification, and Part 6 on information to be included with electronic material. Part 7 is General.

The appeal in R (Coughlan) v Minister for the Cabinet Office (2022) UKSC 11 concerned a challenge brought by Mr Coughlan to orders made by the Minister for the Cabinet Office in respect of Braintree District Council and nine other local authorities (“the Pilot Orders”). These Pilot Orders authorised schemes to temporarily change the rules set out in secondary legislation governing local elections. These schemes, which were implemented in ten local authority areas in respect of the local government elections in May 2019, each introduced a new requirement for some form of voter identification for those local elections.

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In Coughlan v Minister for the Cabinet Office (2020) EWCA 723 the Court of Appeal upholds the dismissal of a challenge to the lawfulness of a pilot scheme to require voters in certain local authority areas to produce identification documentation as a pre-condition to obtain a ballot paper to enable them to vote. The scheme was under Section 10(2)(a) of the Representation of the People Act 2000. This was a permissible restriction, not on the right to vote, but on “how” voting is to take place. “How” is a broad and general concept and covers an experimental scheme requiring identification at the polling station to demonstrate that entitlement.