Blog

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Ruane on 2014-03-17.

To ask the hon. Member for South West Devon, representing the Speaker’s Committee on the Electoral Commission, pursuant to the Answer of 6 February 2014, Official Report, columns 18-19W, on the electoral register, in which month of 2014 the statistics on data matching on electoral registration between the Office of National Statistics, Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency and the National Records of Scotland will be published.

Gary Streeter

The Electoral Commission informs me that it expects to publish a report 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 Electoral Commission will inform the honourable member when this is confirmed.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Ruane on 2014-03-17.

To ask the hon. Member for South West Devon, representing the Speaker’s Committee on the Electoral Commission, pursuant to his Answer of 24 February 2014, Official Report, column 22W, on the Electoral Register, whether the Electoral Commission plans to consider initiating voter national registration days or weeks for UK citizens.

Gary Streeter

The Electoral Commission informs me that it will consider the honourable member’s suggestions.

The Commission has previously organised voter registration drives specifically targeting overseas and armed forces voters, but not for widespread domestic registration.

The Commission is already in discussions with Bite the Ballot, who recently organised a National Voter Registration Day, about how it can help support their work.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Ruane on 2014-03-17.

To ask the hon. Member for South West Devon, representing the Speaker’s Committee on the Electoral Commission, pursuant to the Answer of 24 February 2014, Official Report, column 19W, on the electoral register, with which civic society organisations the Electoral Commission is proactively seeking partnerships for the purpose of increasing electoral registration.

Gary Streeter

The Electoral Commission informs me that it is in the process of contacting a range of organisations, including civic society organisations, and will write to the honourable member once this is complete with the list of organisations that have signed up.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Ruane on 2014-03-17.

To ask the hon. Member for South West Devon, representing the Speaker’s Committee on the Electoral Commission, pursuant to the Answer of 24 February 2014, Official Report, column 20W, on the electoral register, if the Electoral Commission will make a copy of its evaluation of the effectiveness of electoral registration grants available online; and if he will inform the Political and Constitutional Reform Committee once this action is complete.

Gary Streeter

The Electoral Commission informs that it will arrange for the document to be put on their website and will inform the honourable member and the Political and Constitutional Committee Clerk when this has happened.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Ruane on 2014-03-17.

To ask the hon. Member for South West Devon, representing the Speaker’s Committee on the Electoral Commission, pursuant to the Answer of 22 Janaury 2013, Official Report, columns 131-3W, on the electoral register, what assessment the Electoral Commission has made of the reasons for the increase from 8 to 58 in the number of electoral registration officers who failed performance standard 3 between 2010 and 2011.

Gary Streeter

The Electoral Commission informs me that it has previously corresponded with the honourable member on this issue.

Within that correspondence the Electoral Commission set out that following its 2010 report assessing the performance of Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) it became aware of anecdotal evidence suggesting that for various reasons, including local authority budget reductions, there may have been a greater number of EROs who were not meeting performance standard 3. Therefore, in addition to the 2011 performance standard return, the Commission asked all EROs for the first time to confirm specifically whether or not they carried out a personal canvass of all non-responders and, if not, to provide an explanation as to the reasons why.

The Commission subsequently requested further data from EROs who had not confirmed that they carried out a personal canvass of all non-responders in order to make a better-informed assessment of performance against performance standard 3. This data included the number of non-responding households that were not contacted by a personal canvasser or by any other method (not including forms and reminders); how many of these households had entries confirmed by other records; and how many of those households had entries that could not be confirmed and were removed.

Following this process, the Commission revised the assessments of 51 EROs to ‘below’ the standard. This meant that, including the seven EROs who originally reported that they did not meet the standard, there were 58 EROs who did not meet this standard in 2011.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Ruane on 2014-03-17.

To ask the hon. Member for South West Devon, representing the Speaker’s Committee on the Electoral Commission, pursuant to the Answer of 24 February 2014, Official Report, columns 20-1W, on electoral registration, which electoral registration officers and local authorities had the biggest improvement in registering attainers between 2008 and 2013.

Gary Streeter

The Electoral Commission informs me that it does not collect data on the number of attainers registered as part of its monitoring of Electoral Registration Officers (EROs). Through its performance standards framework the Commission monitors whether EROs are encouraging participation in the registration process by having in place an effective and appropriate public awareness strategy and working with partners where appropriate to promote registration.

The Commission informs me that there has been a significant improvement made by EROs in this area.

Between 2008 and 2012 the number of EROs meeting or exceeding the standards relating to public awareness and working with partners increased from 34% to 99% and from 67% to 100% respectively.

The Commission’s report on EROs’ performance in 2013 will be published at the end of March 2014.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Ruane on 2014-03-17.

To ask the hon. Member for South West Devon, representing the Speaker’s Committee on the Electoral Commission, pursuant to the Answer of 24 February 2014, Official Report, columns 20-1W, on electoral registration, which local authorities and electoral registration officers the Electoral Commission has identified as pursuing best practice in electoral registration.

Gary Streeter

The Electoral Commission informs me that it will write to the honourable member on this issue alongside its report on EROs’ planning and preparedness for IER, including their progress in developing public engagement strategies, at the end of March 2014 and will place a copy in the House library.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Ruane on 2014-03-17.

To ask the hon. Member for South West Devon, representing the Speaker’s Committee on the Electoral Commission, pursuant to the Answer of 24 February 2014, Official Report, column 19W, on the electoral register, what measures the Electoral Commission agreed following its meetings with the Department for Work and Pensions, Cabinet Office and other departments on co-operation in electoral registration.

Gary Streeter

The Electoral Commission informs me that it has highlighted the previous question to the Cabinet Office and suggested that they should discuss the issues referred to in it with the Department for Work and Pensions and are currently awaiting a response.