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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Ruane on 2014-03-13.

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 reasons for differential turnout between socio-economic groups.

Gary Streeter

The Electoral Commission informs me that it has not made its own assessment of the reasons for differential turnout between socio-economic groups. However, the Commission is aware of the fact of differential turnout between not only social but demographic and other groups and targets its campaigns accordingly.

For instance, the Commission ensures that its campaigns reach young people by advertising on channels used by that demographic, including Facebook and video-on-demand services, and that its television adverts are frequently placed during programmes with a high viewership amongst young people.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Ruane on 2014-03-13.

To ask the hon. Member for South West Devon, representing the Speaker’s Committee on the Electoral Commission, if he will list each local authority database used by electoral registration offices in the dry run for individual electoral registration (IER) for the 10 local authorities with the (a) best and (b) worst registration rates during the IER dry run.

Gary Streeter

The Electoral Commission informs me that this information was provided to the Hon. Member in the answer to Question 191356.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Ruane on 2014-03-13.

To ask the hon. Member for South West Devon, representing the Speaker’s Committee on the Electoral Commission, what discussions the Electoral Commission has had with the Office for National Statistics and other Government departments on the size of the UK population eligible to vote but not registered (a) before and (b) after the publication of its report, Great Britain’s Electoral Registers 2011.

Gary Streeter

The Electoral Commission informs me that its 2011 report on Great Britain’s electoral registers provided an assessment of the accuracy and completeness of the electoral registers in force in December 2010 and April 2011 using a house-to-house survey methodology.

The Commission always intended to also carry out an assessment of the same registers by matching them against census data. It has therefore been having discussions with the Office for National Statistics (ONS), the National Records of Scotland (NRS) and the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA) since 2010.

The Commission expects to publish reports on England, Wales and Scotland in summer 2014. The timing of the work in Northern Ireland is still the subject of discussions with NISRA.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Ruane on 2014-03-13.

To ask the hon. Member for South West Devon, representing the Speaker’s Committee on the Electoral Commission, whether the Student Loans Company database has been used for purposes of maximising student registration.

Gary Streeter

The Electoral Commission informs me that the Student Loans Company (SLC) database was used during two data matching pilot projects which were organised by the Cabinet Office and evaluated by the Commission.

These pilots aimed to test the usefulness of giving Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) access to information held on national, public databases in order to improve the accuracy and completeness of their electoral register by identifying unregistered people.

In their evaluation of both pilots the Commission concluded that the Student Loans Company data was of limited use in identifying unregistered people.

The Commission’s two evaluation reports can be found here: http://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0010/146836/Data-matching-pilot-evaluation.pdf

http://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0003/156189/Data-mining-pilot-evaluation-report.pdf

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Ruane on 2014-03-13.

To ask the hon. Member for South West Devon, representing the Speaker’s Committee on the Electoral Commission, what assessment the Electoral Commission has made of the future propensity to vote of those electors who (a) use and (b) do not use their vote in the first general election after reaching the age of 18 years old.

Gary Streeter

The Electoral Commission informs me that it has not made its own assessment of this issue, but is aware of the studies that have examined it.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Ruane on 2014-03-13.

To ask the hon. Member for South West Devon, representing the Speaker’s Committee on the Electoral Commission, if he will list the local authority databases used by electoral registration officers in the dry run for individual electoral registration for the 10 authorities with the (a) best and (b) worst registration rates.

Gary Streeter

The Electoral Commission informs me that electoral registration officers (EROs) had their own discretion to use any local databases to which they had access to support their work on local data matching. After the dry run was complete the Commission conducted a voluntary survey of EROs on their use of local data following the dry run of confirmation.

Not all EROs responded to that survey so it is not possible to provide a full answer regarding all EROs with the best and worst registration rates. However, amongst the replies received, the following databases were most frequently cited:

· Council tax database

· Council tax benefits

· Housing benefits

· Registrar of births and deaths

· Housing list/Tenancy records

· Residential homes records

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Ruane on 2014-03-13.

To ask the hon. Member for South West Devon, representing the Speaker’s Committee on the Electoral Commission, if he will list the registration rates for students in higher education institutions in the UK in ranked order for the most recent period available.

Gary Streeter

The Electoral Commission informs me that it does not hold data on the registration rates of students by higher education institution.

The Commission has conducted an analysis of the results of the dry run of the confirmation process to be used during the transition to IER. This indicated that students were one of the groups less likely to be matched against the Department of Works and Pensions database.

This analysis and all the associated data is available to EROs across the country. This has allowed them to identify areas, such as those with large student populations, where they may need to target more of their resources in order to maintain or improve levels of registration.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Ruane on 2014-03-13.

To ask the hon. Member for South West Devon, representing the Speaker’s Committee on the Electoral Commission, what the differential turnout was between the highest and lowest income group in each general election for which such data is available.

Gary Streeter

The Electoral Commission informs me that it does not hold this data. Some information on how turnout varies by socio-demographic factors is available from an analysis of public opinion polls carried out by Ipsos MORI around general elections. The data for 2010 can be found here: http://www.ipsos-mori.com/researchpublications/researcharchive/2613/How-Britain-Voted-in

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