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  • Frank Dobson – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Frank Dobson – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Frank Dobson on 2014-06-18.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what form he expects the Chinese investment in High Speed 2 to take.

    Mr Robert Goodwill

    The 2013 Spending Review provided a long-term funding commitment of £50bn to deliver HS2. We are continuously seeking ways to reduce costs to the taxpayer, and we are very open to proposals around including elements of private financing, including Chinese investment.

    Opportunities for external investment might exist in relation to rolling stock and development and regeneration around stations. This could provide benefits to both taxpayers and investors.

  • Chris Ruane – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Speaker’s Committee on the Electoral Commission

    Chris Ruane – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Speaker’s Committee on the Electoral Commission

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Ruane on 2014-06-18.

    To ask the hon. Member for South West Devon, representing the Speaker’s Committee on the Electoral Commission, what steps the Electoral Commission is taking to increase the number of British overseas electors registered to vote.

    Mr Gary Streeter

    The Electoral Commission informs me that it runs public awareness campaigns to encourage British expatriates to register to vote; the most recent took place ahead of the European elections this year.

    Two briefing notes, which included details of the campaign, were circulated to hon. Members in advance of the elections. These notes are available on the Commission’s website here:

    · www.electoralcommission.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0010/164449/Elections-May-2014-briefing.pdf

    · www.electoralcommission.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0005/165893/The-elections-on-22-May-2014-Briefing-note-2.pdf

    The Commission intends to run a similar campaign ahead of the 2015 General Election. It is currently evaluating the performance of its 2014 campaign to identify improvements that could be made for the General Election campaign. The Commission will ensure that a copy of the evaluation is sent to the hon. Member when it has been completed.

    “

  • Christopher Chope – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Speaker’s Committee on the Electoral Commission

    Christopher Chope – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Speaker’s Committee on the Electoral Commission

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Christopher Chope on 2014-06-18.

    To ask the hon. Member for South West Devon, representing the Speaker’s Committee on the Electoral Commission, what recent estimate the Electoral Commission has made of the number of British citizens registered as overseas voters and the number of such citizens eligible for registration.

    Mr Gary Streeter

    Every British citizen who has been registered to vote in the UK within the last 15 years is eligible to vote in UK Parliamentary (general) elections and European Parliamentary elections.

    The Electoral Commission informs me that the most recent figure showed that there were 15,848 registered overseas voters on the UK electoral registers.

    The most recent estimates of the total number of UK citizens living abroad are of 5.5 million (The Institute for Public Policy Research in 2006) and 4.7 million (The World Bank in 2010). However, it is not possible from this data to establish how many citizens living abroad were registered to vote in the UK within the last 15 years and are therefore eligible to vote from abroad. Even in the absence of a reliable estimate, it is nonetheless clear that the number of UK citizens living abroad who are eligible to register to vote is considerably more than those currently registered.

    The Commission runs public awareness campaigns to encourage British expatriates to register to vote; the most recent took place ahead of the European elections this year.

  • Chris Ruane – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Speaker’s Committee on the Electoral Commission

    Chris Ruane – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Speaker’s Committee on the Electoral Commission

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Ruane on 2014-06-18.

    To ask the hon. Member for South West Devon, representing the Speaker’s Committee on the Electoral Commission, which wards, in which town, county and constituency had a postal vote turnout greater than 90 per cent at the last General Election.

    Mr Gary Streeter

    The Electoral Commission does not hold the data requested at ward level.

    The Commission collects electoral data at each set of polls. In nearly all cases this is collected down to the level of individual contests, which means that it only holds ward level data for local elections.

  • Chris Ruane – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Speaker’s Committee on the Electoral Commission

    Chris Ruane – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Speaker’s Committee on the Electoral Commission

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Ruane on 2014-06-18.

    To ask the hon. Member for South West Devon, representing the Speaker’s Committee on the Electoral Commission, which 100 wards in which town, county and constituency had the lowest turnout for voting in person at the last General Election.

    Mr Gary Streeter

    The Electoral Commission informs me that it does not hold the data requested at ward level.

    The Commission collects electoral data at each set of polls. In nearly all cases this is collected down to the level of individual contests, which means that it only holds ward level data for local elections.

  • Chris Ruane – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Speaker’s Committee on the Electoral Commission

    Chris Ruane – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Speaker’s Committee on the Electoral Commission

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Ruane on 2014-06-18.

    To ask the hon. Member for South West Devon, representing the Speaker’s Committee on the Electoral Commission, which 100 wards in which town, county and constituency in Northern Ireland had (a) the highest electoral registration rate and (b) the lowest registration rate in the latest period for which information is available.

    Mr Gary Streeter

    The Electoral Commission informs me that it does not hold information about ward electorates for Northern Ireland. This information is held by the Electoral Office for Northern Ireland.

  • Chris Ruane – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Speaker’s Committee on the Electoral Commission

    Chris Ruane – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Speaker’s Committee on the Electoral Commission

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Ruane on 2014-06-18.

    To ask the hon. Member for South West Devon, representing the Speaker’s Committee on the Electoral Commission, how many and what proportion of questions answered by the Electoral Commission involving four pages of data or less were (a) placed in the Library without a web link, (b) placed in the Library with a web link and (c) given in full in Hansard in each of the last five years.

    Mr Gary Streeter

    The Commission informs me that it does not collect this information in the requested format.

  • Chris Ruane – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Speaker’s Committee on the Electoral Commission

    Chris Ruane – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Speaker’s Committee on the Electoral Commission

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Ruane on 2014-06-18.

    To ask the hon. Member for South West Devon, representing the Speaker’s Committee on the Electoral Commission, what recent assessment the Electoral Commission has made of the potential benefits of the inclusion of the actual number and proportion of UK citizens registered to vote as a measure of the Electoral Commission’s effectiveness.

    Mr Gary Streeter

    The inclusion of the actual number and proportion of UK citizens registered to vote is not currently included as a key success measure of the Electoral Commission’s effectiveness. The Commission’s key success measures are reviewed each year and included in its Corporate Plan which is updated and presented to the Speaker’s Committee for approval on an annual basis.

    The Commission works with Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) and other stakeholders to increase the number and proportion of UK citizens registered to vote and therefore the change in registrations cannot be attributed solely to the Commission. Changes in registration rates are also likely to be the result of some factors which do not relate directly to registration practices, including levels of political engagement and changes in population mobility.

    However, the Commission sets targets for the number of registration forms downloaded from its AboutMyVote website. This measure provides a proxy for the number of registrations attributable to each Commission campaign. The targets for the number of registration forms downloaded vary for each poll taking account of, for example, the size of the electorate.

    It is currently not possible to directly map the number of forms downloaded from the Commission’s site to actual registrations as the registers are managed by 363 Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) across Great Britain and EROs do not measure the number of registration forms downloaded from aboutmyvote.co.uk for the specific period of Commission campaigns. Following the introduction of Individual Electoral Registration, the Commission will examine the opportunities presented by online registration to review its registration measurements.

  • Chris Ruane – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Speaker’s Committee on the Electoral Commission

    Chris Ruane – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Speaker’s Committee on the Electoral Commission

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Ruane on 2014-06-18.

    To ask the hon. Member for South West Devon, representing the Speaker’s Committee on the Electoral Commission, if the Electoral Commission will revise its Key Success Measures, Target Performance for completeness of register from ‘completeness does not deteriorate’ to a policy of ‘increasing completion rates year on year’.

    Mr Gary Streeter

    The Commission’s key success measures are included in its Corporate Plan which is updated and presented to the Speaker’s Committee for approval on an annual basis. The next opportunity to update the Corporate Plan will be when the 2015-16 to 2019-20 plan is presented to the Speaker’s Committee in spring 2015 and the Commission will be reviewing the key success measures in preparation for this plan in autumn 2014.

  • Chris Ruane – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Speaker’s Committee on the Electoral Commission

    Chris Ruane – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Speaker’s Committee on the Electoral Commission

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Ruane on 2014-06-18.

    To ask the hon. Member for South West Devon, representing the Speaker’s Committee on the Electoral Commission, how many of the six million people identified as missing on the electoral register by the Electoral Commission in 2011 have been registered to vote in each year since 2011.

    Mr Gary Streeter

    The Electoral Commission informs me that its last GB wide study into the completeness of electoral registers was completed in 2011. This type of research does not specifically identify unregistered individuals but provides an assessment of the overall accuracy and completeness of the registers. The Commission’s next study is being published in July and this will update the picture on levels of completeness in 2014.