National Insurance Numbers: Electoral Register Debate

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Department: Cabinet Office

National Insurance Numbers: Electoral Register

Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford Excerpts
Thursday 22nd July 2021

(2 years, 8 months ago)

Lords Chamber
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Lord True Portrait Lord True (Con) [V]
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My Lords, the Government do not support compulsory voting, and, in fact, it has very limited public support, but I agree with the need to encourage participation. We have the parliamentarian youth engagement toolkit, as well as the secondary schools’ resource, introduced in 2018. I hope that, following remarks from my noble friend Lord Lexden, these will be increasingly used.

Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford Portrait Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford (Con)
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My Lords, I welcome the proposal to remind young people to vote, but for those who somehow do not get an automatic national insurance number, Covid-19 restrictions have made it almost impossible to get one. Those waiting in the growing backlog, through no fault of their own, should not be further disadvantaged from registering to vote. I know that, at the moment, you cannot register online without a national insurance number. Has the Minister made an assessment of how many people have been affected in this way? What steps does he have to address this?

Lord True Portrait Lord True (Con) [V]
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My Lords, I do not have an assessment to hand, but my noble friend raises an important point. I will pursue that matter and report back to her.