Tag: Chris Ruane

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Ruane on 2014-06-26.

To ask the hon. Member for South West Devon, representing the Speaker’s Committee on the Electoral Commission, on what specific date the Electoral Commission plans to publish its estimate of the number of people missing off the electoral register.

Mr Gary Streeter

The Commission informs me that it will publish this report shortly.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Ruane on 2015-02-11.

To ask the hon. Member for South West Devon, representing the Speaker’s Committee on the Electoral Commission, what steps the Electoral Commission has taken on local authorities who have improperly sold on the details of electors who have opted out of the open register.

Mr Gary Streeter

If an Electoral Registration Officer (ERO) wrongly supplies the details of an elector who has opted out of the open register, this could constitute a breach of the Data Protection Act. In those circumstances, The Electoral Commission would advise an ERO to immediately speak to their local authority’s Data Protection Officer (or an equivalent officer) and/or directly contact the Information Commissioner’s Office. Depending on the circumstances it could potentially constitute a breach of the ERO’s official duty. An ERO guilty of any act or omission in breach of their official duty – without reasonable cause – is liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding level 5 on the standard scale.

The Commission’s guidance to EROs makes clear that the details of any elector who has asked to opt out of the open register must not appear in the open register.

It also highlights that an ERO is a data controller with statutory responsibilities under the Data Protection Act, and links to the data protection principles produced by the Information Commissioner’s Office, as well as other sources of guidance for local authorities on data handling, including the Local Government Association and the Society of Information Technology Management (SOCITM).

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Ruane on 2014-06-26.

To ask the hon. Member for South West Devon, representing the Speaker’s Committee on the Electoral Commission, what estimate the Electoral Commission has made of the number of local authorities who conducted a dry run in data matching and did not repeat this to the Electoral Commission.

Mr Gary Streeter

The Electoral Commission informs me that it has not made any estimate of the number of electoral registration officers (EROs) who did not undertake local data matching trials following the dry run of confirmation in 2013. 139 EROs reported results to the Commission but there are likely to have been other EROs who carried out some activities but did not report it to the Commission.

The Commission further informs me that it did ask EROs, on a separate survey, whether local data matching would be important during the live run of confirmation and 91% said that it would.

The Commission therefore expects more EROs to conduct local data matching for the live run of confirmation than reported on results following the dry run.

The Commission, working with Cabinet Office, will be collecting data from all EROs after the live run of the confirmation process which will demonstrate levels of usage of local data in practice. This data will be published on the Commission’s website.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Ruane on 2015-02-12.

To ask the hon. Member for South West Devon, representing the Speaker’s Committee on the Electoral Commission, what information the Committee holds on what income local authorities receive from the sale of electoral registers to the private sector.

Mr Gary Streeter

The Electoral Commission does not hold this information.

However, the Commission’s guidance to Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) recommends that EROs maintain a record of the transactions of sales of the registers, which should be available for public scrutiny. The cost of purchasing electoral registers is prescribed in legislation.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Ruane on 2014-06-26.

To ask the hon. Member for South West Devon, representing the Speaker’s Committee on the Electoral Commission, what estimate the Electoral Commission makes of how many registered electors move house and (a) re-register and (b) fail to re-register to vote each year.

Mr Gary Streeter

The Electoral Commission informs me that it intends to provide information on this in its report which uses census data to assess the completeness and accuracy of the registers. This is due to be published in July.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Ruane on 2015-02-11.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, how many passport applications and renewals were administered by post offices in each year since 1985.

Jo Swinson

Information of the number of passport applications and renewals administered by post offices is the operational responsibility of Post Office Limited.

As such I have therefore asked Paula Vennells, the Chief Executive of Post Office Limited, to write to the hon Member on this matter. A copy of her reply will be placed in the libraries of the House.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Ruane on 2014-06-26.

To ask the hon. Member for South West Devon, representing the Speaker’s Committee on the Electoral Commission, if the Electoral Commission will publish the 10 local authorities with the biggest (a) increase and (b) decrease in the net number of electors following the 2013 annual canvass.

Mr Gary Streeter

The Electoral Commission informs me that the table below shows the ten local authorities with the biggest increases and decreases in electorate between the start and end of the 2013 canvass.

Local authority	Change (November 2013 – Feb/March 2014
Edinburgh, City of	20,241
Cheshire West and Chester	14,676
Tower Hamlets	10,566
Newcastle upon Tyne	9,550
Taunton Deane	9,023
North Lanarkshire	9,001
South Lanarkshire	8,926
Glasgow City	8,710
Huntingdonshire	8,023
Mole Valley	7,866
Northampton	-10,309
Barnet	-12,743
Newham	-16,617
Maidstone	-10,121
Cornwall	-13,195
East Devon	-6,424
Birmingham	-20,572
Shropshire	-14,350
Leeds	-24,119
Renfrewshire	-7693

These local authorities cover the following parliamentary constituencies:

Local authority	Constituencies covered
Edinburgh, City of	Edinburgh East Edinburgh North and Leith Edinburgh South Edinburgh South West Edinburgh West
Cheshire West and Chester	City of Chester Eddisbury Ellesmere Port and Neston Tatton Weaver Vale
Tower Hamlets	Bethnal Green and Bow Poplar and Limehouse
Newcastle upon Tyne	Newcastle upon Tyne Central Newcastle upon Tyne East Newcastle upon Tyne North
Taunton Deane	Taunton Deane
North Lanarkshire	Airdrie and Shotts Coatbridge, Chryston and Bellshill Cumbernauld, Kilsyth and Kirkintilloch East Motherwell and Wishaw
South Lanarkshire	Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale East Kilbride, Strathaven and Lesmahagow Lanark and Hamilton East Rutherglen and Hamilton West

Glasgow City	East Dunbartonshire Glasgow Central Glasgow East Glasgow North Glasgow North East Glasgow North West Glasgow South Glasgow South West
Huntingdonshire	Huntingdon North West Cambridgeshire
Mole Valley	Epsom and Ewell Mole Valley
Northampton	Northampton North Northampton South South Northamptonshire
Barnet	Chipping Barnet Finchley and Golders Green Hendon
Newham	East Ham West Ham
Maidstone	Faversham and Mid Kent Maidstone and The Weald
Cornwall	Camborne and Redruth North Cornwall South East Cornwall St Austell and Newquay St Ives Truro and Falmouth
East Devon	Central Devon East Devon Tiverton and Honiton

Birmingham	Birmingham, Edgbaston Birmingham, Erdington Birmingham, Hall Green Birmingham, Hodge Hill Birmingham, Ladywood Birmingham, Northfield Birmingham, Perry Barr Birmingham, Selly Oak Birmingham, Yardley Sutton Coldfield
Shropshire	Ludlow North Shropshire Shrewsbury and Atcham The Wrekin
Leeds	Elmet and Rothwell Leeds Central Leeds East Leeds North East Leeds North West Leeds West Morley and Outwood Pudsey
Renfrewshire	Paisley and Renfrewshire North Paisley and Renfrewshire South

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Ruane on 2015-02-11.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, how many post offices in which public funds were invested to convert them to a (a) main or (b) local post office have (i) temporarily or (ii) permanently closed in each of the last five years.

Jo Swinson

The Government understands the important role that post offices play in communities across the country and since 2010 has committed nearly £2 billion to maintain, modernise and protect a network of at least 11,500 branches that continues to meet strict access criteria that see, for example, 99% of the population nationally living within three miles of a post office outlet.

This Government has also committed that there will be no programme of Post Office closures and there are currently around 11,700 post office branches in the UK, with the Post Office network at its most stable for over two decades.

As the provision of post offices and the investment made under its network transformation programme are the operational responsibility of Post Office Limited I have therefore asked Paula Vennells, the Chief Executive of Post Office Limited, to write to the hon Member on these matters. A copy of her reply will be placed in the libraries of the House.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Ruane on 2014-06-26.

To ask the hon. Member for South West Devon, representing the Speaker’s Committee on the Electoral Commission, how many times an electoral registration officer (ERO) has to fail Standard Three before the Electoral Commission will refer the ERO to the Minister of State for the Cabinet Office for the purpose of improving the performance of the ERO.

Mr Gary Streeter

The Commission informs me that it has reported on ERO performance against Standard 3 for each year since 2008.

To support EROs in preparing for and delivering the transition to individual electoral registration (IER) the Commission has developed a new performance standards framework, which it will use to monitor the performance of EROs against throughout the transition to individual electoral registration. The Commission will continue to carefully monitor and work closely with EROs and will consider a range of options to ensure EROs are carrying out their duties in full.

Discussions between the Electoral Commission and the Cabinet Office take place regularly on a range of subjects.

The Commission made clear in its June report that it would use its statutory powers to make a recommendation to the Secretary of State to require specific EROs to do door-to-door canvassing if this didn’t happen during the introduction of IER, which began on 10 June in England and Wales.

No specific date for conclusion has been set as it will depend on the circumstances in each area, but the Commission will continue to keep this under active review. Should the Commission make a recommendation for such a direction, it will write to the relevant honourable members and local council leaders. We will also write to the Political and Constitutional Reform Committee and ask for this correspondence to be placed in the House Library.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Ruane on 2015-02-11.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, how many external ATMs have been installed at (a) Crown, (b) main and (c) local post offices in each year for which data is available.

Jo Swinson

The provision of Post Office ATM’s at post offices is the operational responsibility of Post Office Limited.

As such I have therefore asked Paula Vennells, the Chief Executive of Post Office Limited, to write to the hon Member on this matter. A copy of her reply will be placed in the libraries of the House.