Peter Wardle

Former Chief Executive, UK Electoral Commission

Peter Wardle spent 10 and a half years as Chief Executive of the United Kingdom's Independent Electoral Commission.

During his tenure as chief executive, the Commission exercised oversight and reported on the conduct of 3 UK general elections and around a dozen other major elections and referendums, including the 2014 referendum on independence for Scotland. Peter helped to plan and implement a historic change from household to individual electoral registration, including the introduction of an online electoral registration system. He set up and chaired the UK Electoral Advisory Board, bringing together the Electoral Commission and the leading local elections officials across the UK, to ensure the good management of elections in all parts of the UK.

The UK Commission transformed its ability to enforce campaign finance regulations by securing and deploying new investigation and enforcement powers; and developed a world-leading online reporting function to ensure full transparency of information about the income and expenditure of political parties and other campaigners at elections and referendums

Peter has a range of international elections experience, including contributing to the International Mission for Iraqi Elections; the Council on Governmental Ethics Laws; the Venice Commission; the OECD; the Commonwealth; and the Cambridge Malaysian Education and Development Trust.

He is now working on various projects in the elections and democracy field, including work to support electoral commissioners across the Commonwealth.

Before joining the Electoral Commission Peter worked in a range of senior roles in the civil service. He spent 8 years (2004-2012) as a non-executive director of his local district general hospital trust, and since 2008 he has been an independent member of a large housing provider's audit and risk committee.

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