Agenda item

The Government has recently published proposals for the introduction of single voter registration. These proposals are open for comment both within and outside Parliament and the Chairman of this Committee has asked for this to be submitted to this meeting to establish whether members have any comments.

A extract of the proposals is attached for consideration. The Assistant to the Chief Executive (who is also the Registration Officer) will give a brief outline orally of current Government plans.

Ian Willett, the Assistant to the Chief Executive and Returning/Registration Officer introduced the Governments proposals for single voter registration. The White Paper proposes that each elector register to vote individually rather than as households as happens at the moment. It will also mean that voter registration would become a matter of voter’s choice, and that it was the responsibility of the voter to let us know of any changes.

The new system will make it easier for voters to register by looking to modernise the system of registration. The current system had not kept pace with technological advances and is largely paper based. It is hoped that the new system will be more accurate and help reduce fraud and it will also give the Police more time to investigate fraud from one year to two years, This system is due to come into effect by 2015 with transitional arrangements in place before the next general election.

In registering, the voter will have to produce identification such as a NI Number and Date of Birth. After registration the NI Number would be deleted from the system, but the Date of Birth would continue to be held.

The annual householder canvas will continue for the time being to capture any changes in households.

The total costs to move to Individual Electoral Registration (IER) was estimated at  £108million; this had been funded as part of the spending review settlement and includes £85million resource funding in 2014/15 to fund registration officers to make contact with each potential elector to invite them to register in 2014.

After 2015 only IER voters would be on the register, voters who have not registered under IER by 2015 are removed from the register. However, safeguards will be put in place for the General Election in 2015 so that existing electors who fail to register under IER in 2014 are not removed.

The Committee noted that no recommendations had been attached to this report; the government had set out their plans and would get these changes through parliament, as a District Council we have to concentrate on how we implement these changes and leave it to the government to sort out the details.

The Chairman asked how many forms are sent out each year and was told that 54,000 householder forms were sent out annually. He asked if the Government paid for this and was told that that we had to pay for this annual canvass.  And, with this extra paperwork for IER coming our way, would we still have to pay, Mr Willett replied that the government had created a ‘fighting fund’ we could draw on, to help bring these changes in; this would be proportional to our electoral roll. It would cost more for us in the long run, but the costs would come after the transition period.

The Chairman asked if the initial data matching would need people authorised to do it. He was told that it would.

Councillor Sartin asked why the table of figures for international electoral results were only for the year 2000. Mr Willett did not know but noted that a lot of other countries had already moved to individual voter registration.

Other Councillors made the following comments:

• Training would be needed on how this new system worked;
• People disliked form filling, so fewer people would choose to register;
• There was a need for more accuracy to combat fraud.

The Chairman noted that if any other councillor had any comments to make, to let Mr Willett know and he would pass it on to the government.

            RESOLVED:

That the Single Individual Voter Registration Government Consultation be noted.