Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if he will make it his policy to collate information on the (a) amount spent by local authorities on electoral registration, (b) number of staff employed by local authorities on electoral registration and (c) local authorities with the (i) highest and (ii) lowest levels of electoral registration.

The Government maintains an estimate of the annual cost of electoral registration. This is supported by cost data from Electoral Registration Officers and volume data provided by electoral management systems and other sources of information.

The Government recognises that Electoral Registration Officers within local authorities are best placed to make decisions on how best to target their work to ensure their electoral registers are complete and accurate. We welcome the sharing of best practice between local authorities on increasing levels of registration. The Electoral Commission provides guidance for EROs and sets and monitors their performance against standards under their Performance Standards Framework, details of which can be found on the EC’s website https://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/