APPENDIX 1
Memorandum by the Home Office
C. Registration
3.1 Registration is conducted by Electoral Registration
Officers (EROs) who are officers of the district or borough councils
(RPA section 8). EROs have a duty to publish an annual register
of parliamentary electors in each year, for the area in which
they act, which in practice also combines the registers of local
government and European Parliamentary electors (section 9).
The registration timetable
3.2 The detailed requirements of each stage are
given below but the annual timetable for registration in Great
Britain is as follows:
| July-early October: |
Annual canvass |
| 10 October: | Qualifying date
|
| October-November: |
Completion of canvass and preparation of electors' lists ("draft register")
|
| By 28 November: | ERO has a duty to publish the electors lists or "draft register"
|
| By 16 December: | Claims to be added to the electors lists must be delivered to the ERO
|
| By 15 February: | The new register is published
|
| 16 February: | The new register comes into force
|
Annual canvass
3.3 With a view to preparing the register, the
ERO is required each year to make a house to house or other sufficient
inquiry as to the persons entitled to be registered, normally
involving forms which householders are required to complete—Form
A (RPA section 10). Information about the methods used by EROs
in canvassing may be found in Annex C; information about the costs
of registration and the cost of publicising the canvass from 1987
onwards is given in table 4.
Table 4: Registration & Publicity Costs (for
England & Wales)
Registration Costs (provided by EROs—"Compiling
the register" series)
|
| Year | Median Budget per Elector
(pence)
| Total Expenditure (median budget multiplied by electorate)
|
|
| 1987 | 58
| 25.3m |
| 1988 | 64
| 28.0m |
| 1989 | 73
| 31.8m |
| 1990 | 79
| 34.5m |
| 1991 | 90
| 39.2m |
| 1992 | 91
| 39.8m |
| 1993 | 99
| 43.3m |
| 1994 | 97
| 42.5m |
| 1995 | 98
| 43.0m |
|
Median budget figures are not available for 1996 and 1997, however,
the latest estimate of expenditure in 1997 for England and Wales
is £44.2 million.
The qualifying date
3.4 Under section 4 of the RPA 1983, the qualifying date for
electoral registration in Great Britain is 10 October in any year
as respects an election the poll for which falls within the period
of twelve months beginning with 16 February in the following year.
With the exception of overseas and Service voters (see paragraphs
20 and 21 below), those persons are registered as electors for
a constituency or electoral area who are resident at an address
there on 10 October and who meet the other requirements set out
in sections 1 and 2 of the RPA 1983. In Northern Ireland, the
qualifying date is 15 September, and a person is not entitled
to be on the register there unless resident in Northern Ireland
(not necessarily in the same constituency) for the whole of the
period of three months ending on that qualifying date.
Home Office publicity costs for annual canvass
1994 £650,000
1995 £800,000
1996 £750,000
1997 £700,000
1998 £700,000 (budgeted)
The bulk of this expenditure has traditionally been devoted to
television advertising, with limited spending on publications
and research. The amounts shown do not include expenditure by
EROs on local publicity measures. NB: Awaiting figures
from Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Electors' lists (the draft register)
3.5 Under section 10 of the RPA 1983, the ERO must publish
electors lists (commonly called the draft register), upon which
the register itself is subsequently based, showing the names and
addresses of everyone who appears to him to be eligible. Regulation
35 of the Representation of the People Regulations 1986 provides
that this must be not later than 28 November.
3.6 The draft register is published by making a copy available
for inspection at the ERO's office, and making a copy of that
part of the register relating to each electoral area available
at a place in or near that electoral area, to which the public
have access. In practice, this means displaying the register at
town halls, public libraries and sub-post offices. The ERO must
also publish a list of overseas electors at the same time, under
regulation 34, by making a copy available for inspection at his
office. Claims in respect of the electors lists must be received
by the ERO by 16 December in each year. For details about the
provision of copies of the lists, please see paragraph 3.20.
Register of electors
3.7 Under sections 9 and 13 of the 1983 Act, every ERO is
required to prepare and publish each year a register of electors
for the area in which they act, not later than 15 February. The
register comes into force on 16 February and remains in force
for all elections for one year. The manner of publication is the
same as for the draft register, and the register is kept published
until the next register comes into force. For details about the
provision of copies, and concerns about public availability of
the register, again please see paragraph 3.20.
3.8 The register must be framed in separate parts for each
parliamentary polling district. Under regulation 49 of the 1986
Regulations, the names and addresses in each separate part are
to be arranged in street order. However, where the council which
appointed the ERO determines for any part of the register that
street order is not reasonably practicable, the names and addresses
are to be listed in alphabetical order, or a combination of alphabetical
and street order.
3.9 Under regulation 49, the requirement to include a person's
address in the register does not apply where the person no longer
has any connection with the qualifying address given. This "exception"
is restricted to service voters, voluntary patients and overseas
electors. Their names are grouped together in alphabetical order
at the end of that part of the register that relates to the address,
under the heading "Other Electors", but no address is
given. Accordingly, the ERO has no discretion to omit a qualifying
address except when authorised to do so by the Regulations.
Claims and corrections to published register
3.10 A person who is properly qualified, as described in paragraph
2.1, may claim to be added to the published register. Under regulation
58 of the 1986 Regulations, the ERO must publish a notice of claims
received between 11th and 20th day of the month (or between 11
and 22 February). The notice must state that claims are available
for inspection at the ERO's office (and invite objections). The
ERO must supply a free copy of the relevant part of the list of
claims to each person supplied with the register under regulation
53 (please see Annex D). If no objection is received, the addition
is made. Claims and objections to claims must be available for
inspection at the ERO's office, until they have been disposed
of.
3.11 Section 11 also permits an ERO to make a correction where
the register as published does not carry out his intention to
include the name of any person shown in the electors lists as
entitled to be registered, or to give the date at which a person
will attain voting age.
3.12 Where an ERO has made an alteration under section 11
of the 1983 Act, he must make a copy of the notice stating the
alteration is available for inspection for as long as the register
is kept published at his office, and at the place where copies
of the part of the register to which the alteration relates are
available. He must also supply a free copy of the alteration to
any person supplied with a copy of the relevant part of the register
under regulation 53 (see Annex D). Under section 11, additions
and corrections may not be made to the register between the last
date for receiving nominations at an election at which that register
applies and the day of polling.
Residence
3.13 In order to be registered a person must be resident at
a qualifying address on the qualifying date. In determining the
question of residence, particular regard is required to be taken
of the purpose and other circumstances, as well as the fact, of
a person's presence or absence from the address. For example,
a person's presence at a hotel on holiday or business would not
be sufficient to establish residence.
Dual registration
3.14 Case law has established that a person may have two residences,
provided residence in each place has a considerable degree of
permanence. He may therefore be able to be registered in two different
constituencies or local government areas, although he may exercise
only one vote in a parliamentary election or in an election to
any one council. This might apply to a businessman with two more
or less equal residences, but the usual example is the student
who is resident in a university town during term-time and at a
parental address during the vacations.
Parliamentary electors overseas
3.15 The RPA 1985 (as amended by the RPA 1989) permits British
citizens overseas to register for 20 years following their departure
from this country, in their parliamentary constituency of last
residence. They must exercise their vote by means of a proxy;
the law does not allow ballot papers to be sent overseas since
other countries' postal services cannot be expected to guarantee
the secrecy and swift turnaround times required by our system.
For each year in which an overseas voter seeks to be retained
on the register, he must make a declaration that he is a British
citizen who will not be resident in the United Kingdom on the
qualifying date. The name is placed on the register under "Other
electors" rather than with their former address in the parliamentary
constituency.
Registration as service voter
3.16 Under sections 14-17 of the RPA 1983, members of the
forces and their spouses, together with Crown Service and British
Council employees and their spouses in posts outside the United
Kingdom have a service qualification. They are not entitled to
be registered as parliamentary or local government electors except
in pursuance of an appropriate service declaration; and service
votes from overseas must be by proxy like other overseas votes.
3.17 The service declaration must include an address where
the declarant would have been resident in the United Kingdom.
The names are placed on the register under "Other electors"
without an address. Service declarations made by members of the
forces and their spouses continue in force until they are cancelled.
Other service declarations need to be made for a particular year,
and also need to be attested by an officer of the government department
under which the declarant is employed, or an officer of the British
Council if the declarant is employed by them, or by another officer
who himself has a service qualification (regulation 18 of the
Representation of the People Regulations 1986).
Voluntary patients in psychiatric hospitals
3.18 Under section 7 of the RPA, a person who is a voluntary
patient in a mental hospital, that is, a patient who is not liable
to be detained there by virtue of any enactment, and who is not
resident elsewhere (eg because of length of stay in the hospital)
is not entitled to be registered except in pursuance of a patient's
declaration. The registration is made in respect of the address
at which the elector would have been resident or one where he
was formerly resident, although the name is listed under "Other
electors." Patients at a mental hospital who are detained
by virtue of an Order under Mental Health legislation are not
entitled to use the hospital address as an address for purposes
of electoral registration.
3.19 The number of overseas electors, service voters and voluntary
patients registered represents less than 1 per cent of the total
electorate. Figures from 1988 on are given in table 5:
Table 5: Overseas Electors; Service Voters; Voluntary Patients
|
| Year Patients |
Overseas Electors | Service Voters
| Voluntary Patients |
|
| 1988 | 2,092
| 272,967 | 2,736 |
| 1989 | 1,836
| 272,714 | 2,142 |
| 1990 | 1,237
| 266,494 | 1,639 |
| 1991 | 34,454
| 271,689 | 1,661 |
| 1992 | 31,942
| 274,559 | 2,387 |
| 1993 | 22,131
| 265,424 | 1,971 |
| 1994 | 18,552
| 250,994 | 1,311 |
| 1995 | 17,934
| 229,728 | 1,151 |
| 1996 | 17,886
| 212,516 | 1,020 |
| 1997 | 23,583
| 203,281 | 1,195 |
| 1998 | 17,315
| 200,505 | 864 |
|
No figures are available for total possible registerable overseas
and service electors or for voluntary patients.
Supply and sale of the register
3.20 Detailed provisions concerning the supply and sale of
the register are provided at Appendix D.
Issues commonly raised
That there should be provision for the addresses of persons
at risk to be omitted from the published register
3.21 Paragraph 3.7 refers. The register is required by law
to be made public and is therefore exempt from the provisions
of the Data Protection Act 1984. However, many people are concerned
about their names and addresses appearing eg professional groups
such as police officers and judges, vulnerable people living alone,
battered spouses who have moved away from abusive partners. Details
of addresses are required to be included in the published register
in order to assist with the public scrutiny of the register.
3.22 Although we have seen little hard evidence to suggest
that electoral data is being misused to target people, the availability
of the register in data form, and the advertising by private companies
of CD-ROM versions, cause concern that it is now much easier to
search the document. Anonymous registration is permitted in many
jurisdictions, eg Australia and New Zealand, where the registration
officer is satisfied that the elector's fear of being put at risk
is justified or has been established. Primary legislation would
be required.
The timetable for making claims during an election should
be extended
3.23 Paragraphs 3.10-3.12 refer. The Home Office receives
considerable correspondence at election times complaining that
electors are unaware of the timetable for closing the register
until after the deadline has passed, in spite of the publicity
given to it. However, time needs to be allowed for objections
to be made to any claim and copies of the final register need
to be made available to candidates and electoral practitioners.
Any change to the deadline would require primary legislation.
The requirement for residence at a qualifying address on
a qualifying date should be reviewed
3.24 Paragraph 3.13 refers. Case law has established that,
so long as a person can be said to be resident at a particular
place, then the quality of accommodation is not relevant, so that
those sleeping in tents or under railway arches might be registered
provided that they are living in the one place on a more or less
permanent basis. Nevertheless, it is difficult for homeless people,
and young "bed-sit" dwellers, to establish residence
for electoral registration purposes. Any proposal to remove or
qualify the residential requirements would require primary legislation.
3.25 There are no "official" figures for the number
of people who are homeless, and unofficial estimates vary according
to the definition of "homeless". For example, for the
review of electoral practice which followed the 1992 election,
CHAR (the housing campaign for single homeless) estimated that
68,000 families and 100,000 single people were living in temporary
accommodation in the UK. Those sleeping rough are likely to be
considered as having the least permanent of addresses, and therefore
will experience difficulty establishing "residence"
for electoral registration. According to street counts undertaken
by the Homeless Network in 1996-97, there were 520 people sleeping
rough in the London area, and a further 592 in the rest of England.
The entitlement to dual registration should be removed or
qualified
3.26 Paragraph 3.14 refers. While the Home Office is not aware
of any evidence of systematic or high volume double-voting, concern
has been expressed, in particular about the influence that the
student vote might have in university towns, and also about the
difficulty of preventing double voting by people who have dual
registration. There are suspicions that "block" registration
of student residences may have led to registration of unqualified
electors, although diligent canvassing should prevent this. Primary
legislation would be required in order to change the entitlement.
The period of entitlement for registration as an overseas
voter should be reviewed.
3.27 Paragraph 3.15 refers. The influence of the overseas
vote has always been somewhat controversial. Nearly the whole
of the limited amount of mail which the Home Office now receives
on this subject is from citizens who want to be allowed to vote
even though they have been more than 20 years resident overseas.
Voluntary patients' declaration
3.28 Paragraph 3.18 refers. Under section 7 of the RPA 1983,
voluntary patients are required to make a declaration as to the
address in the United Kingdom at which they would otherwise be
resident, and in respect of which they will be registered. It
is objected that this places an additional obstacle in the way
of these electors exercising the franchise.
The use of mental hospital addresses
3.29 Paragraph 3.18 also refers. The option of making a declaration
is not available to those who are compulsorily detained, who may
find it difficult to establish their home residence qualification
if their detention is lengthy. Legal advice is that an absence
of six months or more may be significant. The charity MIND has
made the point that not all those so detained would be incapable
of making political choices under the common law, and therefore
that registration arrangements ought to be made for them too.
The Working Party will be looking at the issues which concern
both voluntary and detained psychiatric patients.
Supply of the register
3.30 Annex D refers. Some people object on principle to information
which is required by law for civic purposes being used, and possibly
sold onwards at a profit, by commercial organisations for direct
mailing and credit reference purposes. Many have reported difficulty
in obtaining credit where, for whatever reason, they have been
excluded from the register, and there is concern that false registration
claims may be made in order to obtain credit fraudulently. On
the other hand, many EROs believe that higher fees should now
be levied. This is another issue which will be taken forward by
the Working Party. It is proposed to consider sale of the register,
and possible exceptions to it before turning to fees' levels if
necessary.
Under-registration and the accuracy of the register
3.31 The Home Office has funded research by ONS which has
found that, as well as the homeless, there are other groups—young,
single people and members of ethnic minorities—which appear
to be under-registered. Table 6 gives figures for the estimated
level of under-registration for the years from 1983 on.
3.32 It has been suggested that rolling registration would
help to counter the problems of under-registration. It is a frequent
concern that elections take place using registers based upon a
single qualifying date which is between four and 16 months earlier.
A system of rolling registration would allow for regular updating
of the registers to reflect moves made by people between constituencies
and electoral areas. However, there are no clear statistics as
to the numbers of these moves.
3.33 To date, there is little evidence that rolling registration
would do much to increase the numbers registering overall although
it may help to increase the accuracy of the register as regards
those who are already registered. This might reduce the need for
absent voting applications and enhance the public image of a system
which may appear slow in the computer age. On the other hand the
system does need to allow time for claims and objections to be
examined so as to prevent abuse.
Table 6: Estimated levels of under-registration 1983-97
General election years shown in bold
|
| Year | Parliamentary Electors (thousands) (a)
| Approximate corresponding resident population from preceding year (thousands) (b)
| (a) as percentage of (b) |
|
| 1983 | 42,704
| 43,674 | 97.8
|
| 1984 | 42,984
| 43,959 | 97.8 |
| 1985 | 43,131
| 44,278 | 97.4 |
| 1986 | 43,393
| 44,590 | 97.3 |
| 1987 | 43,666
| 44,852 | 97.4
|
| 1988 | 43,705
| 45,106 | 96.9 |
| 1989 | 43,613
| 45,310 | 96.3 |
| 1990 | 43,663
| 45,512 | 95.9 |
| 1991 | 43,557
| 45,661 | 95.4 |
| 1992 | 43,725
| 45,804 | 95.5 |
| 1993 | 43,719
| 45,905 | 95.2
|
| 1994 | 43,787
| 45,985 | 95.2 |
| 1995 | 43,896
| 46,075 | 95.3 |
| 1996 | 43,985
| 46,234 | 95.1 |
| 1997 | 44,204
| 46,428 | 95.2
|
| 1998 | 44,297
| n.a. | n.a. |
|
Whilst the 1998 register statistics should be available by the
end of April, the corresponding population estimate will not usually
be ready until August. If the same population estimates are used,
then the percentage registered for local elections in 1997 was
95.7 per cent; whilst for the European Parliamentary elections
in 1994 it was 95.3 per cent.
3.34 The Working Party is currently considering options for introduction
of a rolling register and has commissioned further work on a model
which would provide for:
quarterly or monthly, rather than annual, qualifying dates,
which would be used as effective dates for making changes
retention of an annual canvass
voluntary claims by electors, when they wish to transfer
their registrations between canvasses
retention of a claims and objections procedure, modified
to include claims for transfers of registration
enabling EROs to draw more widely upon other sources of
information, such as the registers of births, deaths and marriages
cut-off dates for transfers of registration before elections
publishing a full register once or twice a year, but not
publishing a draft register
Common data format for the register
3.35 There is no requirement for EROs to produce the electors'
lists and register in a common data format, and in fact EROs employ
a variety of computer hardware and software to produce their own
individual documents. It has been argued that the information
technology should be standardised, to enable the construction
of a nationwide database and to enable EROs to exchange information
more easily. Easier information exchange would, for example, be
a help in preventing double-voting and would be essential in any
system of rolling registration. A national computer system would,
however, have cost and possible civil liberties implications.
|
