Agenda item

The Committee considered a report containing an update on progress on Individual Electoral Registration (IER) and the actions Officers are taking to implement it.

IER was being implemented as a result of the Electoral Registration and Administration Act 2013 and would require each elector to register individually rather than via a household form as at present.  Although the transition to IER would not start until after the European Parliamentary and local elections in May 2014, a great deal or preparatory work had been undertaken.  The annual canvass normally carried out each autumn had been deferred, was taking place at the moment with the new register due to be published in February 2014.

The transition would begin following the May elections with the confirmation of electors, a data matching exercise of the elector’s name on the electoral register with information held by the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP).  If this can be matched, that entry on the register will be confirmed, the elector will be notified and they will not need to take any further action.  Evidence from a dry run of the data matching carried out in 2013 suggests that about 70% of electors could be confirmed in this way.  The Electoral Registration Officer (ERO) will then invite people on the register who have not been confirmed, and any others thought to be eligible, to apply to register individually.  People will be reminded more than once and if they still do not respond, they will be visited by a canvasser before a new electoral register is published in December 2014.  Between this date and the General Election in 2015 further efforts will be made to encourage those people missing from the register to apply, people who have moved house to update their details, and those who have not yet applied individually to do so.  A full household canvass will take place in the autumn of 2015, followed by publication of a new register in December 2015, with completion of the transition to IER by January 2016.

The preparations undertaken for implementation of IER had included a restructuring of the Electoral Services Team, with additional posts on fixed term contracts until 31^st December 2015, to increase management resilience and capacity.  A project team of key staff had been established to plan and carry out the necessary action, including a significant input from the Council’s IT team and the Council’s Election Management System (EMS) supplier as regards system upgrades, new hardware and testing connectivity with Government’s Digital Service.  Additional funding had been provided by central government in the form of a £7,000 grant in April 2013 for the cost of change management and the data matching dry run.  The Council was also due to receive Transition Fund grant (allocated by formula) of £67,004 in 2014/15.  However the significant additional costs, including printing, postage and additional canvasser visits, required for implementation and maintenance of IER were likely to exceed the grant received.  It is not known whether the grant will be a one-off or recurrent payment and the budget implications and a claim for additional funding were being assessed.

The Committee noted that in order to mitigate the risk of large numbers of eligible voters being deterred from registering, plans were in hand for a robust information strategy which was capable of achieving high levels of engagement with local communities to maintain and improve registration rates.  Nevertheless, it was anticipated there would be in the region of 20,000 people registered whose details will not be matched with the DWP data, who would need to be invited individually to register by supplying their name, address, date of birth and National Insurance (NI) number.  In answer to a question about how residents originally born overseas who had never been issued with a NI number could successfully register, it was explained there was an exception process which would allow other documents to be produced in place of an NI number.  Attention was also drawn to a change introduced under IER whereby it would no longer be a legal requirement to register.  However, there was a provision for Council’s to issue a fixed penalty notice on persons refusing to register, a position the Committee found anomalous.

The Committee also noted it was proposed to invite the IER Regional Delivery Manager to brief members following the elections in May.

Reference was made to a recent Electoral Commission review of electoral fraud recommending that voters should be required to show ID at polling stations to tighten up security.  These proposals would be developed for consultation but primary legislation would be required in order to implement them.  The report also recommended action to tackle the risk electoral fraud particularly in higher risk areas, of which it was suggested Slough was one having had a history of cases of alleged fraud.  The Committee noted the security precautions in place to deter fraudulent applications, the scrutiny given to new applications to register or vote by post, and the monitoring of the delivery of application forms so that the source could be traced.

Resolved - 

(a)  That the report be noted.

(b)  That comments be fed back to Government that for Individual Electoral Registration to include provision for a fixed penalty notice to be issued for persons refusing to register whilst containing no legal requirement to register is anomalous and unworkable.