Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many posts there have been from official Governmental social media accounts on (a) Facebook, (b) Twitter and (c) any other social media platform to raise awareness of voter registration deadlines in each of the last four years.

The Government recognises that social media can be an effective tool in increasing democratic awareness in all groups, particularly amongst those groups who are less likely to be registered to vote, such as young people.

The primary legal responsibility for maintaining complete and accurate registers lies with Electoral Registration Officers; the Electoral Commission (EC) also has a statutory duty to promote awareness of elections, including registration. In this capacity the EC leads public awareness campaigns on voter registration, notably ahead of elections.

Working in partnership with the EC, Cabinet Office has coordinated cross-Government support for these campaigns. This includes sharing campaign materials through government social media accounts, such as Facebook and Twitter, as well as wider networks. No central record is kept of the volumes of these activities.

In addition to cascading messages on social media, the Government has also funded local authorities and civil society organisations such as Mencap, Bite the Ballot and Operation Black Vote to promote voter registration ahead of polls. Register to vote reminder messages were also added to high traffic GOV.UK pages, such as DVLA and HMRC.