{{Short description|Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom}} {{Use British English|date=August 2025}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} {{Infobox UK legislation | short_title = Parliamentary Elections Act 1868{{efn|Section 1.}} | type = Act | parliament = Parliament of the United Kingdom | long_title = An Act for amending the Laws relating to Election Petitions, and providing more effectually for the Prevention of corrupt Practices at Parliamentary Elections. | year = 1868 | citation = [[31 & 32 Vict.]] c. 125 | introduced_commons = Prime Minister [[Benjamin Disraeli]] | territorial_extent = {{ubli|[[England and Wales]]|[[Scotland]]|[[Ireland]]}}<ref>{{cite book |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=I7MuAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA211 |chapter=Dublin Freemen Commission Act (32 & 33 Vict. c. 65) |title=The Statutes of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (1807–1868/69) |last1=Britain |first1=Great |year=1807 }}</ref> | royal_assent = 31 July 1868 | commencement = 31 July 1868{{efn|The [[Acts of Parliament (Commencement) Act 1793]].}} | repeal_date = 5 November 1993 | amendments = {{ubli|[[Statute Law Revision Act 1875]]|[[Perjury Act 1911]]|[[Representation of the People Act 1948]]|[[Representation of the People Act 1949]]|[[Election Commissioners Act 1949]]}} | repealing_legislation = [[Statute Law (Repeals) Act 1993]] | related_legislation = | status = Repealed | original_text = https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/Vict/31-32/125/contents/enacted | use_new_UK-LEG = no }}
The '''Parliamentary Elections Act 1868''' ([[31 & 32 Vict.]] c. 125), sometimes known as the '''Election Petitions and Corrupt Practices at Elections Act'''<ref name="Morris 2012">{{Cite book |title=Parliamentary Elections, Representation and the Law |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AZF6BAAAQBAJ&q=%22Parliamentary+Elections+Act%22+1868&pg=PT76 |first=Caroline |last=Morris |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |year=2012 |isbn=978-1-8473-1936-4 }}</ref> or simply the '''Corrupt Practices Act 1868''', was an [[Act of Parliament (United Kingdom)|act]] of the [[Parliament of the United Kingdom]]. The effect of the act was to transfer responsibility for trying [[election petition]]s from the [[House of Commons of the United Kingdom|House of Commons]] to the judges of the [[High Court of Justice]]. The act was designed to, and did, provide a more effective measure for preventing corruption and fraud in parliamentary elections.
==Background== The [[1865 United Kingdom general election|1865 general election]] was regarded by contemporaries as being a generally dull contest nationally, which exaggerated the degree of corruption within individual constituencies. In his PhD thesis, [[Cornelius O'Leary]] described ''[[The Times]]'' as having reported "the testimony is unanimous that in the General Election of 1865 there was more profuse and corrupt expenditure than was ever known before".<ref name="Kelly & Hamlyn 2013">{{cite book |chapter=The Law and Conduct of MPs |first1=Richard |last1=Kelly |first2=Matthew |last2=Hamlyn |title=Parliament and the Law |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GZTbBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA93 |editor-first1=Alexander |editor-last1=Horne |editor-first2=Gavin |editor-last2=Drewry |editor-first3=Dawn |editor-last3=Oliver |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |year=2013 |isbn=978-1-7822-5258-0 |page=93 }}</ref> As a result of allegations of corruption, 50 [[election petition]]s were lodged, of which 35 were pressed to a trial; 13 ended with the elected MP being unseated. In four cases a [[royal commission]] had to be appointed because of widespread corrupt practices in the constituency.<ref name="O'Leary 1962">{{cite book |title=The Elimination of Corrupt Practices in British Elections 1868–1911 |last=O'Leary |first=Cornelius |authorlink=Cornelius O'Leary |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |location=Oxford |year=1962 }}</ref>{{rp|27–28}} When he came into office in 1867, [[Benjamin Disraeli]] announced that he would introduce a new method for election petition trials (which were then determined by a committee of the House of Commons). Disraeli proposed that this take the form of two assessors visiting the constituency and determining the outcome, with an appeal to the House of Commons which could appoint a [[Select committee (United Kingdom)|select committee]] should it decide to take the matter up.<ref name="O'Leary 1962"/>{{rp|32}} This bill was referred to a select committee which altered it so that the jurisdiction was given to the Court of [[Court of King's Bench (England)|Queen's Bench]], with no appeal to the House, but with a three-member Court of Election Appeals for points of law.<ref name="Morris 2012"/> At this point the bill was withdrawn, so that it could be reintroduced the following year.<ref name="Kelly & Hamlyn 2013"/><ref name="O'Leary 1962"/>{{rp|35}}
==Legislation== When the bill was reintroduced in February 1868, Disraeli noted that the [[Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales|Lord Chief Justice]] Sir [[Sir Alexander Cockburn, 12th Baronet|Alexander Cockburn]], had written to the [[Lord Chancellor]] expressing the "strong and unanimous feeling of insuperable repugnance" to their proposed duties under the bill.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Cockburn |first1=A. E. |title=Letter from the Lord Chief Justice of England to the Lord Chancellor respecting the Trial of Election Petitions |work=Includes:Reports from commissioners, inspectors and others |date=14 February 1868 |location=London |publisher=HMSO |series=Parliamentary papers |volume=1867-8 HC lvi (50) 491 |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.32044106494594&seq=505}}</ref> He had therefore changed the proposal again, to propose an [[election court]] which would have three members. The [[Liberal Party (UK)|Liberal]] opposition did not attack the principle of the bill, although two individual Liberal MPs fervently opposed it,<ref name="O'Leary 1962"/>{{rp|36–37}} with [[Alexander Mitchell (UK politician)|Alexander Mitchell]] arguing he was "convinced that the retention by the House of its own jurisdiction and the right of determining who were its Members was essential to its dignity and independence".<ref name="Kelly & Hamlyn 2013"/> There was a feeling in the press and in Parliament that a makeshift court was not of suitable esteem to take over what had been a matter of [[parliamentary privilege]]. Disraeli therefore came up with a compromise, which [[William Ewart Gladstone|William Gladstone]] accepted, whereby two judges of the [[Court of Common Pleas (England)|Court of Common Pleas]], [[Exchequer of Pleas]] or Queen's Bench would be designated to try election petitions with full judicial salaries.<ref name="O'Leary 1962"/>{{rp|39}} The passage of the bill was prolonged in the House of Commons because of opposition, but passed through the House of Lords in five days and the bill received Royal Assent on 31 July 1868.{{Citation needed|date=January 2021}}
== Subsequent developments == Sections 3, 15 and 56 of the act were repealed by section 21(2) of, and the schedule to, the [[Election Commissioners Act 1949]] ([[12, 13 & 14 Geo. 6]]. c. 90), which came into force on 23 February 1950.<ref>{{Cite legislation UK|act=Election Commissioners Act 1949|type=act|year=Geo6/12-13-14|chapter=90}}</ref>
The whole act was repealed by section 1(1) of, and group 2 of part XI of schedule 1 to, the [[Statute Law (Repeals) Act 1993]], which came into force on 5 November 1993.<ref>{{Cite legislation UK|act=Statute Law (Repeals) Act 1993|type=act|year=1993|chapter=50}}</ref>
== See also == * [[Corrupt practices]] * [[Corrupt Practices Act 1695]] * [[Corrupt and Illegal Practices Prevention Act 1883]] * [[List of UK parliamentary election petitions]] * [[Reform Acts]] * [[Representation of the People Act]]
== Notes == {{Notelist}}
== References == {{Reflist}}
== External links == * {{UK-LEG|asmade=yes}} * {{Cite web |url=https://www.parliament.uk/about/living-heritage/transformingsociety/electionsvoting/elections-and-voting-in-the-19th-century/reforming-election-methods/from-the-parliamentary-collections/election-petitions21/ |title=Parliamentary Elections Act, 1868 |publisher=[[Parliament of the United Kingdom]] }}
{{UK electoral reform}} {{UK legislation}} {{Authority control}}
[[Category:United Kingdom Acts of Parliament 1868]] [[Category:Repealed United Kingdom Acts of Parliament]] [[Category:Election legislation in the United Kingdom]]