APPENDIX TWO: NOTE BY CLIVE BETTS MP OF
INTERVIEW WITH SHEFFIELD ELECTORAL REGISTRATION OFFICER, EIRWEN
EVES
1. Barely 80% of households have returned forms for
the register which has come into operation this month. Follow
up reminder letters were sent after the first one and additionally
letters have been sent to all properties where no-one is registered.
One thousand forms have been returned on that basis alone. The
Registration Officer's view is there has been a cultural change
and people don't think they have to send the form back. Indeed
many people assume that once they are on the register they remain
on it even if they don't bother to respond.
2. This highlights different practice in different
authorities as apparently in some parts of the country local authorities
do leave people on the register until they have evidence that
they have actually moved. In Sheffield, however, if a household
doesn't return a form for two years then they are taken off. I
think this highlights perhaps the need for some clear code of
practice at national level so that we get a consistent approach
to registration.
3. Apparently there already is the facility to cross-check
against council tax information and that is now accepted practice.
As part of the cross-checking apparently there were 10,000 found
on the register who weren't down as being on the council tax list.
The registration officer doesn't automatically put people on the
list if they are on the council tax list and merely writes to
households where there has been a name change but a registration
form hasn't been returned.
4. On individual registration the registration officer
thought that this could reduce registration by between 30-50%.
I am not sure there is any scientific basis for that but she says
there is a lot of unease amongst her colleagues that if nothing
else is done the register will be significantly less accurate.
She estimates the register is about 90% accurate of those currently
registered.
5. In terms of the current registration process she
highlighted something I didn't realise which is that while there
is rolling registration most of the year, from August to December
there isn't, because the new registration is being done. People
can't just come in and add their names to the register as they
can at any other time of year. This she says causes a lot of confusion
amongst the public and sometimes leads to people getting quite
upset that they can't, as everyone believes, just come in and
register at any time. She accepted that if we had a situation
where people remained permanently on the register then there could
be a periodic audit alongside information coming from different
sources about people moving house. She pointed out that that actually
could be a lot more efficient because currently what in effect
is the annual process of registration is all attempted in a two
or three month period whereas if they had a static register updated
for removals, audit could be done at different times of the year,
spread across the year, enabling them to concentrate in detail
on particular areas and be far more effective.
6. She was in favour of using other sources of information
about removals including Inland Revenue, National Insurance, citizenship
ceremonies where people change their nationality and therefore
become eligible to vote, and then eventually ID cards as well.
7. Sheffield now uses a facility for people to confirm
registration by telephone where there haven't been any changes
in the household. She said that 30,000 households had done that
this year. That is 20% of the people registering.
8. With regard to postal votes she confirmed that
quite a few people who ticked a box applying for a postal vote
application form never returned them. Though she had some reservations
about it because she thought people would do it too simplistically
without necessarily understanding, this might confirm the need
for simply ticking a box on a registration form to decide to vote
by post rather than applying for a form. Interestingly she said
that when the poll card goes out for the general election people
will be able to apply for a postal vote — there will actually
be a postal vote application on the poll card which people will
be able to send back. They won't have a lot of time to do it but
it did seem to me quite a new innovation which was probably worthy
of support.
9. I know in the past that Westminster Council have
sent out a poll card when the new register is published to confirm
who is actually on the register at each house. I think they probably
get a large number of people complaining that the card has come
to someone completely different from the people who live there.
I understand that Rotherham Council are also going to do that
on this occasion and it might be interesting to monitor precisely
what impact that particular procedure has.
10. In terms of being able to vote immediately prior
to the election, she was quite relaxed about that as she said
that with everything on the computer these days it is relatively
easy to register people. As things stand people will have to register
by 11 March for a 5 May election. That is going to leave a lot
of people very disappointed.
I am sending to you under separate cover copies of
the forms returned by ward and constituency. It is very interesting
to look at the variation between the Dore & Totley ward, which
has the only conservative councillors in Sheffield and has a Forms
Returned rate of 89.8%, compared to Burngreave ward (56.84%) which
has a large number of private rented houses, or Manor Castle Ward
which has had less than two-thirds of forms returned. Both Burngreave
and Manor Castle wards are amongst the poorest wards in the city,
whereas Dore & Totley ward is amongst the more affluent. In
political terms you can almost guarantee, with the exception of
Central which has some peculiarities, the percentage of the Labour
vote being inverse to the percentage of forms returned.
I hope these notes are helpful on one or two of the
practical issues which currently exist on the ground.
Clive Betts
MP for Sheffield Attercliffe
February 2005
| 
