Stratford District Council taking part in electoral register pilot project

Stratford-on-Avon District Council is to take part in a Government electoral register pilot project.

The District Council is one of 22 selected local authorities to take part in separate pilots for making the electoral register more accurate and complete, with the scheme to be rolled out across the country if successful. 

Last year the Government announced that from 2014 voters will be asked to register individually in order to modernise the electoral registration system and tackle fraud.

The data matching pilots are being held during 2011 and will allow local authorities to compare their electoral register with other public databases to identify people missing from the register or entries on the register that are inaccurate or fraudulent.  Between authorities combinations of data from public authorities including the Department for Work and Pensions, the Department for Transport, the Department for Education, HM Revenue and Customs, the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills and the Ministry of Defence will be used.

Stratford District Council's pilot is considering the accuracy of data regarding the over 70s, those rising 18 and service voters across the District. To do this data will be matched with the Department of Work & Pensions (DWP), HM Revenues & Customs (HMRC) and the Ministry of Defence (MoD). The costs regarding the pilot will be funded by the Central Government and so there will be no extra cost to the District Council.

These pilots will enable the Government and the Electoral Registration Officer to see how effective data matching is, plus which data sets are of most use to local authorities in improving the accuracy and completeness of the electoral register.

As part of introducing individual electoral registration, the Government will take steps to improve its accuracy and completeness, by seeking to add people who are eligible to vote but are currently missing from the register, and taking steps to identify and remove any individual who is on the register but is not entitled to be.  The aims are to tackle under registration among specific groups while at the same time ensuring that the electoral system is not vulnerable to fraud.

If data matching proves effective, the Government will consider rolling it out more widely across local authorities on a permanent basis to help ensure that the electoral register is as complete and accurate as possible and if this is the case Stratford District Council will have all the systems in place from the pilot so saving time and money in the future.

The District Council has already begun providing data holders with information from the electoral register.  The data holders will check against their data and return a report to the Electoral Registration Officer; this will include matches and non matches against the register. If data matching identifies names on the register that are not found elsewhere then the Electoral Registration Officer will be able to investigate whether those entries are legitimate and likewise, if data matching identifies eligible individuals who are not already on the register then the Electoral Registration Officer will offer them the opportunity to register.

Pilots will be completed by 30 November 2011 and once completed the data created for the purposes of the pilot schemes will be destroyed, except where it has been added to the electoral register.  

• Over 70s are being considered as they are exempt from Jury service and the Electoral Registration Officer provides the Courts with the register.
  
• The Government is satisfied that the schemes comply with the applicable provisions of current data protection legislation and no new databases will be created.
  
• The pilots are part of the Government's plan to bring individual registration from 2014, replacing the current system of household registration in which one person at each address is responsible for providing the names of voters who live there. 
  
• The move to individual electoral registration will make the register less vulnerable to fraud, testing whether or not comparing existing data sets is an effective way of achieving this.