Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, with reference to his statement to the House of Commons on 2 March 2026 on the Representation of the People Bill, col 627, how many people in the figure that he provided of 7 or 8 million people being eligible to vote but are not currently registered are (a) British citizens, (b) Irish citizens, and (c) Commonwealth citizens.

Research published in 2023 by the Electoral Commission (EC) estimated that between seven and eight million eligible people are either incorrectly registered or not registered to vote at all. As part of this research, the EC considered how the completeness of the register varied by a range of demographic characteristics, including age, gender, nationality and disability. Full data sets were published with the report which is available online on the EC’s Website. It is titled, 2023 report: Electoral Registers in the UK’.

The government believes that everyone who is entitled to vote should be able, supported and encouraged to do so. To meet the manifesto commitment to improve voter registration we will be making changes in legislation and testing ways to move towards a more automated voter registration system.