Tag: Lord Rennard

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Rennard on 2016-01-11.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of research from the University of East Anglia forecasting that the introduction of Individual Voter Registration will lead to a decline in levels of electoral registration.

Lord Bridges of Headley

The Government is aware of research by the University of East Anglia into Individual Electoral Registration (IER) that was submitted to the Political and Constitutional Reform Committee in 2011. The electoral registers used for the 2015 General Election contained over 400,000 more entries than the last registers published prior to the introduction of IER. As such, suggestions that IER would lead to a decline in registration levels were proved incorrect.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Rennard on 2016-10-20.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, in the light of the independent report commissioned by the Electoral Commission, Evaluation of Electoral Administration at the EU Referendum, published in August, which showed that almost half of Counting Officers responsible for the referendum considered that their teams had insufficient funds available to support the work required to compile the electoral register, whether they plan to review the electoral registration funding process.

Baroness Chisholm of Owlpen

It is the responsibility of Local Authorities, under the Representation of the People Act 1983, to appoint an Electoral Registration Officer who has a statutory duty to maintain registers of UK Parliamentary and local government electors for their area. To support Local Authorities with this process, and fund the transition to Individual Electoral Registration, the Cabinet Office has provided over £25 million of funding in 2014/2015 and over £15 million in 2015/2016. In addition, the Government has committed to cover the additional costs associated with the modernisation of electoral registration for at least the rest of this parliament.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Rennard on 2016-01-11.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they have taken to ascertain how many people shown as having voted on the marked register for the General Election on 7 May 2015 were on the electoral register at that time solely by virtue of the household based electoral registration system; whether they will make any such data available, broken down by (1) country, (2) constituency, and (3) local authority; how many of those voters were removed from the electoral registers on 1 December 2015; and what plans they have to help ensure that those voters are included on electoral registers based on Individual Electoral Registration.

Lord Bridges of Headley

While data is not available on the number of non-IER registered electors who voted at the 2015 General Election, the Electoral Commission found 96% of the entries on the electoral register in May 2015 were already registered under IER. The remaining non-IER registered electors will have been contacted as part of the annual canvass, and specifically targeted by Electoral Registration Officers, to encourage them to submit an application under IER ahead of the end of the transition to IER.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Rennard on 2016-10-20.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the answer by Lord Bridges of Headley on 15 June (HL Deb col 1218), what progress they have made in assessing the benefits of an online registration checking tool.

Baroness Chisholm of Owlpen

The Government recognises that finding a way to reduce the number of duplicate applications to register to vote would be beneficial for both citizens and electoral administrators. An online registration checking tool is one of many potential solutions.

We are currently in the discovery phase of investigating the issue of duplicate applications and are scoping a number of options. Whether or not an online registration checking tool is the most viable solution will only become clear after this work has been completed.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Rennard on 2016-01-11.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what plans they have to gather data from Electoral Registration Officers about levels of electoral registration as at 1 December 2015, and whether that process will differ from practice in previous years.

Lord Bridges of Headley

Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) will have published their revised registers by 1 December 2015. As in previous years the Electoral Commission will use the data from these registers to inform their assessment of the state of the December 2015 registers, which they plan to publish in late February/early March. The Cabinet Office has worked with EROs, Electoral Management Software suppliers and the EC to gather data that will assist the assessment of the December 2015 registers.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Rennard on 2016-10-20.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what their response is to the recommendation of the Electoral Commission in its report on the 2016 EU referendum that Governments should make use of all available owned channels to promote voter registration ahead of any major poll.””

Baroness Chisholm of Owlpen

We welcome the Electoral Commission’s recommendation. This recommendation reflects the success of activities conducted by the Government to promote registration ahead of the EU Referendum that complemented the activity delivered by the Commission.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Rennard on 2014-06-12.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they plan to include, in their consideration of the future of the national census, the possibility of collecting data for electoral registration purposes in addition to other purposes.

Lord Wallace of Saltaire

The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Rennard on 2014-06-12.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they consider that online completion of census data could be combined with online electoral registration.

Lord Wallace of Saltaire

With the introduction of online registration in England and Wales on 10 June and September in Scotland, registering to vote is now more convenient and accessible.

The Government will continue to explore the mutual benefits of collaboration between online electoral registration and preparation for the online Census.