From Dr Phillip Rice
Sir, - I was disappointed not to see in your General Synod report (29 November) any mention about the turnout in elections to the Synod. This was a key point that I was making in my contribution to the debate, since it actually paints the Synod turnout (and so engagement) in a better light than perhaps is generally perceived.

What matters is not so much whether clergy turnout was 55 per cent and laity 50 per cent, as it was in London, but what it compares with in other civil elections. In my civil-service trade union (FDA), at elections for officials the turnout is about 25 per cent to 30 per cent. In my borough by-elections, 25 per cent to 35 per cent is typical for Tower Hamlets. In elections for Police and Crime Commissioners in 2012, it was an overall average 15 per cent with a constituency range of 11.5 to 19.5 per cent.

I said that, arguably, the most comparable were the 2011 elections for the members of the Electoral Reform Society's own officials. This is an election with full electronic voting, for which the turnout was 27.1 per cent. I concluded that civil society was not finding it easy to turn out to vote.

I think that it would be helpful to report these numbers and get this on to the record, to serve as a yardstick for looking at any electoral reform of the Synod.

PHILLIP RICE
23 Christchurch Square
London E9 7HU