The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Ruane on 2014-05-06.
To ask the Deputy Prime Minister, with reference to the Answer of 20 October 2011, Official Report, column 1099W, on electoral register, what the results were of the pilot scheme data matching electoral registers against other data services such as the National Pupil Database.
Greg Clark
Results were published in March 2012 and July 2013 and can be found via this link:
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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, 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 2014-05-12.
To ask the Deputy Prime Minister, with reference to the Answer of 8 November 2011, Official Report, column 283W, on the electoral register, if he will make it his policy to collect information on the number of fixed penalty notices issued for non-registration in the run up to the introduction of individual electoral registration.
Greg Clark
It has not proved possible to respond to the Hon Member in the time available before Prorogation.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Ruane on 2014-06-04.
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what use his Department has made of the National Wellbeing Index introduced by the Office for National Statistics in formulating policy since the introduction of that Index in 2011; and what policies his Department has introduced to improve national wellbeing as defined in that Index since 2010.
Mr Nick Hurd
This Government is starting to advance the use of wellbeing indicators in policy formulation.
Evidence provided to the Environmental Audit Committee for its Inquiry into Wellbeing can be found at: http://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/commons-select/environmental-audit-committee/inquiries/parliament-2010/well-being/
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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Ruane on 2014-06-04.
To ask the Deputy Prime Minister, with reference to the Answer of 23 April 2012, Official Report, column 623W, on electoral register, what steps he has taken to improve student registration in the run up to individual electoral registration.
Greg Clark
The Government is working with the Higher Education sector to maximise the registration of students.
Measures include provision of data from the universities to the EROs to help them contact students individually and promoting the use of online registration, when it becomes available, particularly during course enrolment.
The Government has produced guidance for university registrars to help them implement these steps before the start of the 2014/15 academic year when students will register under Individual Electoral Registration.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Ruane on 2014-06-12.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the relationship of the length of time of GP patient consultation and successful diagnosis.
Dr Daniel Poulter
No assessment has been made of the relationship between the length of time of general practitioner (GP) patient consultation and successful diagnosis. Data on the length of GP appointments is not held centrally.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Ruane on 2014-06-11.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate he has made of the number of children in (a) relative and (b) absolute poverty in each region of the UK in the next three years.
Esther McVey
The Government does not produce forecasts of the number of children living in income poverty either locally or nationally. The number of children in poverty is dependent on a number of factors which cannot be reliably predicted.
This Government does not believe it is possible to accurately project child poverty. We know that poverty projections are rarely accurate. For example, IFS projections in October 2011 suggested the number of children in relative poverty would fall by 100,000 in 2010/11, whereas in fact it fell by 300,000.
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 2014-03-13.
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 2014-03-26.
To ask the Deputy Prime Minister, pursuant to the Answer of 28 January 2014, Official Report, column 510W, on the electoral register: young people, how the £4.2 million funding to maximise the rate of voter registration ahead of the transition to individual electoral registration has been spent; and what measures are in place to monitor the effectiveness of this spending.
Greg Clark
Funding has been provided to all 363 local authorities and valuation joint boards in Great Britain, and five national organisations, to support the costs of activities for maximising registration as part of the transition to individual electoral registration.
Guidance has been made available to support them in evaluating the success of activity delivered through this funding. Government officials will continue to work closely with funding recipients to monitor and measure the outcomes.