Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference to every Voice Matters: Building a democracy that works for everyone, published by the Government in December 2017, if his Department will take steps to collect official statistics on the registration rates of (a) homeless people, (b) transgender people and (c) Care Home residents.

Electoral statistics published annually by the Office for National Statistics derive from the electoral registers held by Electoral Registration Officers (EROs). The Government does not otherwise collect official statistics on registration. EROs collect data solely for the purposes of registration. There are no gender requirements for registration and it is therefore not possible or appropriate for EROs to collect data on this. Some EROs may collect data on the number of applicants (including homeless people) to register using Declarations of Local Connection and some EROs may have data on care home registrations, but there are no requirements to collect such data.

The democratic engagement plan published in December 2017 sets out the Government’s commitment to undertake further research into the barriers that could be preventing individuals from these groups from applying to register to vote.