Electoral Register

(asked on 5th March 2015) - View Source

Question

To ask the hon. Member for South West Devon, representing the Speaker's Committee on the Electoral Commission, if the Electoral Commission will include a question on electoral registration forms asking how and why voters obtained their registration form in order to monitor the effectiveness of electoral registration activities.


Answered by
Gary Streeter Portrait
Gary Streeter
This question was answered on 17th March 2015

The Electoral Commission has a statutory duty to design certain electoral registration forms. These designs must be submitted to the Lord President of the Council for approval following which they must be provided for use by Electoral Registration Officers (EROs).

In doing this, the Commission must ensure that the forms collect all the information required by legislation, and so space to collect prescribed information therefore needs to be prioritised over requests for any additional information.

In designing the forms the Commission has also sought to focus on accessibility and ease of use by applicants.

The Commission has plans in place to evaluate the impact of its work to promote registration in the period leading up to the May 2015 elections. The Commission also provides guidance to EROs to support them in evaluating the impact of their activity locally, which includes advising them to take steps to record the level of responses as a result of an activity.

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