Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Chisholm of Owlpen on 26 October (HL2496) concerning progress in assessing the benefits of an online registration checking tool, what assessment they have made of (1) the extent to which an online registration checking tool could increase electoral registration levels by enabling people to check whether or not they are already registered before attempting to register online, and (2) the amount of time election administration staff would spend checking for duplicate registrations; and how they intend to take into consideration the relative importance of each of those benefits when assessing options.

As stated in my previous answer to HL 2496, the Government is currently conducting a “discovery phase” in relation to understanding the issue of duplicate applications. It is right that we will need to meet the needs both of citizens and administrators when considering the right way forward. In discussions with administrators and others to date, it has become clear there are wide-ranging views on whether citizens would use a look-up tool in practice. There are also wide-ranging views on the kind of intervention that would most benefit administrators. That is why our evidence-gathering phase is so important. This discovery phase is also important for us to understand the practical considerations of the different possible solutions.