1.  In his covering letter to the Prime Minister, Sir Alistair Graham, the Chair of the Committee on Standards in Public Life, sets out the back ground and key messages of his report in the Electoral Commission. He says that although the Commission has a key role to play in supporting and maintaining democracy, it has failed in two key areas:

• The integrity of electoral administration (including electoral registration); and
• The regulation of political party funding.

2.  His report states that the Commission should in future therefore concentrate on these two key tasks. His Committee's recommendations therefore concentrate on refocusing on these key areas. They include recommendations that:

• a move is made to individual voter registration;
• the rules on prior political involvement of staff and Commissioners be relaxed;
• the transparency and effectiveness of the accountability of the Commission to Parliament, principally through the Speaker's Committee be improved.

3.  Many of the recommendations will require legislation, which the Committee propose should be introduced in the next parliamentary session, and are therefore directed at the Government. Some others can be achieved without legislation and are therefore directed at the either The Electoral Commission itself, or the Speaker's Committee of the House of Commons. The Committee also emphasises that Government, Parliament and political parties all have their own critical role to play in restoring confidence in the system.