Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how much central Government funding has been allocated for the purpose of increasing individual electoral registration in each year for which data is available.

The Government has made a substantial financial commitment to maximising voter registration. This has supported almost 33 million people making an application to register to vote since Individual Electoral Registration was introduced in 2014, ensuring the electoral register is more accurate than ever before.

Since the 2013/2014 financial year, the UK Government has made over £27m available to maximise the number of people on the electoral register. This includes £14 million across 2013/14 and 2014/15 to support the costs of activities at a local and national level. Further to this, £2.5m was allocated to target different audiences in the run-up to the 2015 General Election; along with £3m of additional funding for all EROs in Great Britain to target their non-IER registered carry forward electors in 2015. More recently, up to £7.5m was made available across 2015/16 and 2016/17 for a range of voter registration activities – including funding for local authorities and civil society organisations – in the run up to the EU Referendum.

This figure does not include funding made available to support wider democratic engagement programmes, like those associated with the Suffrage Centenary.

As set out in the Government’s Democratic Engagement Plan, we are continuing to invest in a range of activities and improvements to broaden participation, including the first ever National Democracy Week which will take place this summer (2-8 July).