Asked by: Chris Ruane (Labour - Vale of Clwyd)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference to the voter ID pilot, what assessment he has made of the effect of the (a) poll card, (b) mixed ID, and (c) photographic ID model on people with protected characteristics under the Equality Act 2010.
Answered by Kevin Foster
In line with the 2018 pilot evaluation, the 2019 pilots have been evaluated by both the Electoral Commission and the Cabinet Office. The evaluations show that the overwhelming majority of people cast their vote without a problem. As in 2018, the data collected does not indicate that any demographic group was consistently adversely impacted by the models across the pilot authorities.
Asked by: Chris Ruane (Labour - Vale of Clwyd)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps his Department has taken to increase registration rates and voter turnout of (a) visually impaired voters and (b) voters with learning difficulties.
Answered by Kevin Foster
In September 2017 the Government launched a Call for Evidence to find out how people with disabilities experience registering to vote and voting itself. The government responded to this in August 2018 and is working with organisations such as the RNIB and the Royal Mencap Society in overseeing delivery of the actions contained in the Government’s response and more widely.
These actions include reviewing the online registration system, utilising opportunities to promote awareness for groups representing disabled people, such as in National Democracy Week, providing information in Easy Read format and making use of sight registers held by local authorities in England to support more and better information being made available.
Improvements in place and intended for the voting process also support participation and include improved training of polling station staff to provide better support to voters with sight loss and those who have a learning disability and consideration of options for equipment for people with disabilities to use when voting.
Asked by: Chris Ruane (Labour - Vale of Clwyd)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what the electoral registration rate was in each year since 1997 in the 100 parliamentary constituencies which have had the largest decrease in the number of electors on the register from the date of the local boundary review to July 2019.
Answered by Oliver Dowden
The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority.
The UK Statistics Authority's Interim National Statistician has responded.
Asked by: Chris Ruane (Labour - Vale of Clwyd)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if he will commission research on the effect of levels of functional illiteracy on electoral registration rates.
Answered by Oliver Dowden
In its democratic engagement plan, Every Voice Matters: Building a Democracy That Works For Everyone, the Government explored key barriers to registration identified through research and face to face engagement. We are tackling these barriers, including those faced by survivors of domestic abuse, homeless electors and young people, and have reported on our progress in our follow up report, Democratic Engagement: Respecting, Protecting and Promoting our Democracy.
Although it did not emerge as a factor in its own right, we are aware of the potential contribution that lack of literacy makes to the under registration of a number of groups, such as those with learning disabilities, homeless people and those with specific language barriers.
The voter registration website is reviewed regularly to ensure it meets the Government’s service design standards to make it as easy to use as possible and we have produced easy read guides to registering to vote in partnership with Mencap. We are also working with civil society organisations to encourage engagement with those under registered groups who are more likely to experience lower levels of literacy.
Asked by: Chris Ruane (Labour - Vale of Clwyd)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what his most recent estimate is of the electoral registration rate for each region of the UK.
Answered by Oliver Dowden
The Cabinet Office does not hold this information. Registration statistics, including a breakdown of the numbers of people registered in each UK region, are available from the Office for National Statistics’ (ONS) website: www.ons.gov.uk
Estimates of the completeness and accuracy – including those for regions across the UK – are published by the Electoral Commission. The latest report on register completeness and accuracy was produced by the Electoral Commission in 2016 and is available online: www.electoralcommission.org.uk.
Asked by: Chris Ruane (Labour - Vale of Clwyd)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what (a) central Government and (b) local government databases electoral registration officers may use in undertaking their registration functions.
Answered by Oliver Dowden
Regulation 23 of the Representation of the People (England and Wales) Regulations 2001 and the Representation of the People (Scotland) Regulations 2001 gives Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) wide-ranging powers to request whatever information and data they require for the purposes of maintaining the electoral registers. EROs are therefore entitled to request datasets from organisations which would help them undertake their registration functions.
Online applications via the Register to Vote website are verified via the Individual Electoral Registration Digital Service (IER DS) using Department for Work and Pensions data. EROs also use local government data in carrying out their registration duties. Commonly used datasets include council tax, housing and housing benefit data, adult social care data, and school admissions data.
Asked by: Chris Ruane (Labour - Vale of Clwyd)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many electoral registration officers have been convicted of an offence related to failure to take sufficient steps to register electors under section 9A of the Electoral Registration Act 2006.
Answered by Oliver Dowden
The Cabinet Office is not aware of any convictions of electoral registration officers under section 9A of the Electoral Registration Act 2006.
Asked by: Chris Ruane (Labour - Vale of Clwyd)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference to the Answer of 20 July 2010, Official Report, column 298W, on Electoral Register, how many electoral registration officers have been convicted of an offence related to failure to take sufficient steps to register electors under section 9A of the Electoral Registration Act 2006.
Answered by Oliver Dowden
The Cabinet Office is not aware of any convictions of electoral registration officers under section 9A of the Electoral Registration Act 2006.
Asked by: Chris Ruane (Labour - Vale of Clwyd)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what additional central Government funding was made available to electoral registration officers for electoral registration in each of the last five years; and which local authorities were successful in bidding for that funding.
Answered by Oliver Dowden
Since 2015, Cabinet Office has provided five years of annual grant funding to Electoral Registration Officers in England, Scotland and Wales to cover the additional cost that Individual Electoral Registration (IER) introduced to the registration system.
Initial in-year allocations are paid to all local authorities in England and Wales, and valuation joint boards in Scotland as early in the financial year as possible. If local authorities/valuation joint boards require further additional funding, they are required to submit a justification led bid (JLB) towards the end of the financial year.
Since 2015, the Cabinet Office has provided £96M to cover these additional costs
● 15/16, £27M
● 16/17, £21M
● 17/18, £18M
● 18/19, £16M
● 19/20, £14M (initial allocations announced and payments being processed – does not include JLB funding.)
Since 2015/16, 50% of the Local Authorities and Valuation Joint Boards have received additional JLB funding on top of the initial allocation in at least one of the years of funding.
It is anticipated that plans to reform the annual canvass of electors will significantly reduce the overall cost of electoral registration and place electoral registration services on a more sustainable footing.
Asked by: Chris Ruane (Labour - Vale of Clwyd)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what (a) national and (b) local authority databases may be inspected by electoral registration officers.
Answered by Oliver Dowden
Regulation 23 of the Representation of the People (England and Wales) Regulations 2001 and the Representation of the People (Scotland) Regulations 2001 gives Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) wide-ranging powers to request whatever information and data they require for the purposes of maintaining the electoral registers. EROs are therefore entitled to request datasets from organisations which would help them undertake their registration functions.
Online applications via the Register to Vote website are verified via the Individual Electoral Registration Digital Service (IER DS) using Department for Work and Pensions data. EROs also use local government data in carrying out their registration duties. Commonly used datasets include council tax, housing and housing benefit data, adult social care data, and school admissions data.