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, 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.