WIREDGOV

The transition to Individual Electoral Registration (IER) continues to progress well finds an Electoral Commission report published yesterday (18 June). The May 2015 electoral registers across Great Britain contained 46.8 million entries. This is a 1% increase on the February / March 2014 registers – the last published under the old household registration system.

However, the Commission’s report also shows that 1.9 million entries are being retained under the transitional arrangements that are in place for IER from the previous household registration system. This represents 4% of all register entries.

Electoral Commission assessment and recommendation on the end of the IER transition

Despite the good progress with the transition to IER, the Commission has recommended that the end-point for the move – when all entries that have not been verified against Government or locally held records will be removed from the registers – should remain December 2016 as stated in law and should not be brought forward to December 2015.

This is because the Commission’s assessment has found that:

• There is significant variation in how the 1.9 million entries that remain on the register as part of the transitional arrangements for IER are distributed across different local authorities.
• It is not possible at this time to tell how many of these 1.9 million entries are for electors who are still resident at an address, and are eligible to be registered to vote but have not yet registered individually; and how many entries are redundant and relate to electors who are no longer resident at an address.
• While Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) will be working between now and December 2015 to reduce these 1.9 million entries, we cannot know what the impact of this activity will be. There therefore remains a risk that a considerable number of eligible voters could be removed from the registers before the significant set of polls scheduled for May 2016 if the transition to IER is brought forward. 

Jenny Watson, Chair of the Electoral Commission, said:

“The move to a new registration system – the biggest change to electoral registration in almost one hundred years – has gone well so far and the ability to register online is popular. The rise in the number of entries on the electoral registers overall is also welcome news, though not everyone on the current register has moved onto the new system. 

“Taking into account the data and evidence which is available to us at this point, and the scale and importance of the polls scheduled for next May, we recommend that the end of transition should take place in December 2016 as set out in the legislation.”  

On-going work to get people registered to vote

From 1 July 2015, Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) across Great Britain will be carrying out a comprehensive household canvass. They will send ‘Household Enquiry Forms’ to all properties to identify who is resident at an address and eligible to be registered. This will help EROs identify how many of the 1.9 million register entries are redundant and should be removed before the publication of the revised registers in December 2015; and how many relate to an individual who is entitled to be on the register and therefore needs to complete an individual registration application.

The Electoral Commission will run campaigns ahead of the elections in May 2016 to encourage people to register and to make the registers more accurate and complete. In Scotland, a specific campaign to encourage 15 – 17 year olds to register to vote will coincide with the canvass.

Attainers (16 and 17 year olds)

The Commission’s report found that there remains an issue with the number of registered attainers (16 and 17 year olds). There were fewer than 250,000 attainers on the May 2015 registers, a fall of 47% since February / March 2014. The Commission largely attributes the decline to the one-off lack of comprehensive household canvass activity in 2014. In 2015, comprehensive household activity will take place and each Electoral Registration Officer (ERO) will have plans in place maximise the number of attainers on their registers.

To see the Commission’s report, click here

For further information contact:
Karim Aziz in the Electoral Commission press office on 020 7271 0704 orkaziz@electoralcommission.org.uk 
Out of office hours 07789 920 414

Notes to editors

1. The Electoral Commission is an independent body set up by the UK Parliament. Our aim is integrity and public confidence in the UK’s democratic process. We regulate party and election finance and set standards for well-run elections and are responsible for the conduct and regulation of referendums held under the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act (2000).
2. The local government registers in May 2015 contained 46,814,081 entries. The registers contained 247,705 attainers.
3. Since the introduction of IER, 75% of all applications to register to vote have been made online.
4. May 2016 will see elections to the Scottish Parliament; the National Assembly for Wales; the Mayor of London and London Assembly; Police and Crime Commissioner elections across England and Wales; and local government elections in many areas of England.
5. The law (Electoral Registration and Administration Act 2013) states that the transition to IER will end with the publication of the revised registers in December 2016. The legislation does allow the UK Government to make an Order between June and August 2015 which would bring forward the end of the transition in December 2015. A statutory instrument containing such an Order would not need to be debated by the UK Parliament, but could be annulled by a resolution of either House of Parliament.