Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what assessment he has made of the effect of changes in local government spending on future votes turnout for elections in respect of staff capacity (a) for registration and (b) at polling stations; and what assessment he has made of the effect of such changes on (i) the provision of vote registration campaign materials and (ii) the number of people likely to vote by post.

It is for individual councils to decide how best to meet their statutory duties, including the organisation of elections, having regard to the resources available to them, which for elections includes £148 million that the Government has specifically set aside for Individual Electoral Registration (IER), the General Election and the Boundary Review in 2015/16, and additionally, over £29 million to fund IER related activities in 2016/17.