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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Ruane on 2014-05-06.

To ask the hon. Member for South West Devon, representing the Speaker’s Committee on the Electoral Commission, which electoral registration officers identified themselves as below standard at using information services to verify entries in the register of electors and identify potential new electors in the latest period for which figures are available.

Mr Gary Streeter

The Electoral Commission informs me that in 2013 no Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) reported performing below the standard for performance standard 1, which aims to ensure that EROs use appropriate sources of information to verify records on the register of electors and to identify and contact potential new electors throughout the year.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Ruane on 2014-05-06.

To ask the hon. Member for South West Devon, representing the Speaker’s Committee on the Electoral Commission, which local authorities have initiated proceedings for failure to complete and return an annual electoral registration return in the latest period for which figures are available.

Mr Gary Streeter

The Electoral Commission informs me that the following Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) reported that they had initiated prosecutions as a result of a failure to respond to the 2012 annual canvass: East Staffordshire; Gravesham; Nottingham; London Borough of Tower Hamlets; Warrington.

The Commission also informs me that it is in the process of analysing the detailed registration data relating to the 2013 canvass, and that once this work has been completed, it will publish the full data set, which will include information on which local authorities initiated proceedings for failure to complete and return an annual canvass form in 2013.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Ruane on 2014-05-06.

To ask the hon. Member for South West Devon, representing the Speaker’s Committee on the Electoral Commission, which local authority had the biggest percentage (a) increase and (b) decrease in electoral registration in each year since 2010.

Mr Gary Streeter

The Electoral Commission informs me that there are no reliable yearly estimates of levels of registration at a local authority level.

The Office for National Statistics publishes total electorates for each local authority on an annual basis. This data can be found here: http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/pop-estimate/electoral-statistics-for-uk/2013/index.html

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Ruane on 2014-05-06.

To ask the hon. Member for South West Devon, representing the Speaker’s Committee on the Electoral Commission, what the main reasons given by electoral registration officers were for not conducting data matching activities for the purpose of individual electoral registration.

Mr Gary Streeter

The Commission informs me that the use of local data-matching to support confirmation and verification under Individual Electoral Registration (IER) is at the discretion of Electoral Registration Officers (EROs). Ministerial guidance sets out the considerations EROs should take into account in determining whether to conduct local data matching for these purposes, which includes an assessment of the costs and benefits of doing so in their local area.

Following the dry-run of the confirmation exercise in summer 2013, 137 EROs reported to the Commission on the trials that they had carried out of local data-matching to support the confirmation process. The reasons given by EROs for not carrying out local data-matching at that time included a lack of staff resources and an already high match rate. However, in a survey of EROs after the dry-run, 91% of respondents said that local data-matching would be important in their area during the confirmation live run in 2014.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Ruane on 2014-05-06.

To ask the hon. Member for South West Devon, representing the Speaker’s Committee on the Electoral Commission, if the Electoral Commission will write to all hon. Members to inform them whether or not their electoral registration officer (ERO) conducted data matching for the purposes of individual electoral registration (IER) in the recent dry run; and what steps the Electoral Commission can take against EROs who do not undertake data matching activities for the purpose of IER.

Mr Gary Streeter

The Electoral Commission informs me that the use of local data-matching to support confirmation and verification under Individual Electoral Registration (IER) is at the discretion of Electoral Registration Officers (EROs). Ministerial guidance sets out the considerations EROs should take into account in determining whether to conduct local data matching for these purposes, which includes an assessment of the costs and benefits of doing so in their local area.

Following the dry-run of the confirmation exercise in summer 2013, 137 EROs reported to the Commission on the trials that they had carried out of local data-matching to support the confirmation process. However, in a survey of EROs after the dry-run, 91% of respondents said that local data-matching would be important in their area during the confirmation live run in 2014.

The Commission published the confirmation dry-run data and an analysis of this and the survey responses received from EROs on its website and emailed hon. Members on publication.

The Commission informs me that it will continue to work with the Cabinet Office and its Regional Delivery Managers to provide support to EROs throughout the transition to IER to ensure that they are carrying out all necessary activities to meet the challenges of IER in their local areas.

The Commission will also collect and publish data from EROs at key stages in order to monitor the progress of the transition, as follows:

· on conclusion of confirmation – August 2014 (England and Wales) and October 2014 (Scotland)

· on conclusion of the write-out and following publication of the revised register – December 2014 (England and Wales) and March 2015 (Scotland)

· after the registration deadline for the May 2015 elections – April 2015

The Commission will make this information available to all hon. Members on publication, along with information on what questions they can ask their local ERO to establish progress with delivering the transition in their area.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Ruane on 2014-05-06.

To ask the hon. Member for South West Devon, representing the Speaker’s Committee on the Electoral Commission, with reference to the Answer of 13 June 2011, Official Report, columns 584-5W, on electoral register, how many letters the Electoral Commission have written to hon. Members as a result of their electoral registration officers having failed at least one standard performance indicator in each year for which data is available.

Mr Gary Streeter

The Electoral Commission informs me that it notifies all MPs of the outcomes of Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) performance measurement assessments through a Written Statement and it writes individual letters to MPs who have an ERO that has failed at least one performance indicator within their constituency. EROs that have failed the standards are identified in the Commission’s reports each year, which are available on its website:

http://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/find-information-by-subject/performance-standards

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Ruane on 2014-05-06.

To ask the hon. Member for South West Devon, representing the Speaker’s Committee on the Electoral Commission, with reference to the Answer of 13 June 2011, Official Report, column 586W, on electoral register, how many (a) written and (b) oral representations the Electoral Commission has received on electoral registration matters from hon. Members from the (i) Labour, (ii) Conservative and (iii) Liberal Democrat parties in each year since 2010.

Mr Gary Streeter

The Electoral Commission informs me that it no longer holds information in the format requested. However, the Commission answers parliamentary questions about all aspects of its work and meets regularly with a range of honourable members to discuss issues relevant to its work, including on registration matters. This includes meetings with Parliamentary parties, a range of meetings with individual MPs and meetings with its Parliamentary Advisory Group, minutes of whose meetings can be found on its website here: http://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/our-work/who-we-are/governance-and-decision-making/parliamentary-advisory-group.

Details of the Chair of the Commission’s external meetings are also published on an annual basis and can be found on its website here:

http://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/our-work/who-we-are/executive-and-management-team

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Ruane on 2014-05-06.

To ask the hon. Member for South West Devon, representing the Speaker’s Committee on the Electoral Commission, with reference to the Answer of 5 July 2011, Official Report, column 1103W, on electoral register, which electoral registration officers rated themselves too highly in their self-assessment and had their ratings reduced in each year for which data is available.

Mr Gary Streeter

The Electoral Commission informs me that information about those Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) whose assessments it revised to ‘below the standard’ in each of 2008, 2009 and 2010 is available in the answer provided on 5 July 2011 [63427].

Those EROs whose assessments the Commission has revised to ‘below the standard’ in 2011 and 2012 are shown in the tables below:

2011	2012
Performance Standard 3	Performance Standard 3
Angus	Arun
Arun	Braintree
Braintree	Broxbourne
Broxbourne	Castle Point
Castle Point	East Hampshire
Chichester	East Hertfordshire
Clackmannanshire	Eastbourne
East Ayrshire	Great Yarmouth
East Devon	Gwynedd
East Dorset	Lancaster
East Hertfordshire	Merthyr Tydfil
East Lothian	Mid Sussex
Edinburgh, City of	North Hertfordshire
Falkirk	North Warwickshire
Fife	Powys
Gravesham	Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead
Great Yarmouth	South Oxfordshire
Hart	Uttlesford
Maldon	Vale of White Horse
Malvern Hills	West Oxfordshire
Medway	Performance Standard 4
Merthyr Tydfil	Eden
Midlothian	Performance Standard 6
Milton Keynes	Eden
Mole Valley
North Ayrshire
North Devon
North Lanarkshire
North Somerset
North Warwickshire
Perth and Kinross
Powys
Rhondda, Cynon, Taff
Sedgemoor
Shropshire
Solihull
South Ayrshire
South Lanarkshire
Stirling
Suffolk Coastal
Tandridge
Taunton Deane
Thanet
The Vale of Glamorgan
Torfaen
Warwick
West Devon
West Lothian
West Oxfordshire
West Somerset
Wycombe

The Commission informs me that it is in the process of analysing the detailed registration data relating to the 2013 canvass, which informs its assessments of EROs’ performance. Once this work has been completed, it will publish final assessments of performance for 2013, including the details of any EROs whose assessments it has revised.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Ruane on 2014-05-06.

To ask the hon. Member for South West Devon, representing the Speaker’s Committee on the Electoral Commission, what steps have been taken by the Electoral Commission to inform hon. Members of the performance of electoral registration officers in their (a) constituency and (b) local authority.

Mr Gary Streeter

The Commission informs me that it notified all hon. Members of the performance of electoral registration officers (EROs) through a written statement announcing the publication of its assessment report on 31 March 2014. The Commission also writes individually to every MP who has an ERO within their constituency who has failed to meet at least one performance standard

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Ruane on 2014-05-06.

To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, with reference to the Answer from the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Constitutional and Political Reform of 11 October 2011, Official Report, column 344W, on electoral register: standards, what assessment she has made of the effects of the visits of electoral registration officers in Northern Ireland to schools with 10 or more pupils between the ages of 16 and 17 on electoral registration for that age group in Northern Ireland.

Mr Andrew Robathan

Concerns about under-representation of attainers were raised following the introduction of individual registration in Northern Ireland in 2002. The registration of attainers improved significantly with the introduction of the Chief Electoral Officer’s Schools Initiative. The Electoral Commission’s 2012 report on continuous electoral registration in Northern Ireland estimated that 66% of attainers were registered.

Although the number of attainers registered in December 2013 fell to 9,945 from 11,477 in December 2012, the Electoral Commission’s recent report on the electoral registration canvass suggests that this can be partially explained by the fact that the Electoral Office did not conduct any activity with schools to register attainers in autumn 2013 due to canvass activity. The Electoral Office will commence school visits in September 2014 for the academic year 2014-15 and will also take applications from those pupils not visited last year.