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4 Mar 2009 : Column 1706W—continued
Electoral Register
Chris Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice (1) what steps his Department has taken to encourage electoral registration officers to obtain information from other local government databases to improve their electoral registers; [260135]
(2) if he will bring forward proposals to amend data protection legislation to allow the exchange of information between local authority departments for purposes of compilation of the electoral register; and if he will make a statement. [260172]
Mr. Wills: Electoral Registration Officers are required to take all steps that are necessary for the purpose of complying with their duty to maintain the electoral registers, and these steps include inspecting any record which the ERO is permitted to inspect by law.
The Electoral Commission has issued guidance to EROs encouraging them to use the power to inspect records and advises on the sources that may be inspected, which will help EROs to obtain and cross-check information to assist them in their registration duties. In addition, the Commission has published a final set of Performance Standards for Electoral Registration Officers in Great Britain in July 2008. These standards require EROs to provide information on their use of the databases available to them. The Commission intends to publish the results of ERO self-assessments against the performance standards in spring 2009.
The Government remain concerned about the need to address levels of under-registration in Great Britain. To this end, we have recently tabled amendments to the Political Parties and Elections Bill that will allow the Secretary of State to pilot data matching schemes, under which public authorities will provide registration officers with information to assist them in maintaining an accurate and comprehensive register. In addition, we plan to introduce secondary legislation to enable EROs in areas where there are two-tiers of local government to access data held by the higher tier to help them identify individuals who are not registered to vote. This will mirror arrangements in place for EROs in single tier areas.
Chris Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice (1) which local authorities (a) do and (b) do not give turnout targets for their electoral registration departments as part of their corporate policy goals; [260169]
(2) what estimate he has made of the number of people eligible to but not registered to vote in each region of the UK; [260171]
(3) if he will commission further research into the reasons for low levels of voter registration; [260173]
(4) if he will (a) issue guidelines to local authorities on how to increase voter registration and (b) regularly publish a league table of the local authorities in respect of levels of voter registration they achieve; and if he will make a statement. [260175]
Mr. Wills: Issuing guidelines to electoral registration officers (EROs) on how to increase electoral registration falls within the remit of the Electoral Commission. The current guidelines, published in February 2008, include advice on the activities that EROs should undertake to comply with their duty to take all steps that are necessary to maintain the electoral register, including sending the annual canvass form more than once, making house to house inquiries in connection with the canvass, making contact by such other means as the ERO thinks appropriate with a person who does not have an entry in the register, and inspecting any record that the ERO is permitted by law to inspect.
The Government have not made an estimate of the number of people eligible, but not registered, to vote, in each region of the UK and there are currently no plans to commission research into low levels of registration. However, in their research report, “Understanding Electoral Registration”, published in September 2005, the Electoral Commission estimated that 3.5 million eligible electors were not registered to vote.
Since this report was published the number of people registered to vote in the UK as reported by the Office for National Statistics has continued to increase. Following the 2007 annual canvass the number of parliamentary electors grew by 307,669 to 45,082,854 and the number of local government electors grew by 463,340 to 45,920,503. In 2008, the number of parliamentary electors grew by 111,595 to 45,194,449 and the number of local government electors grew by 227,374 to 46,147,877.
The Government remain concerned about the need to address levels of under-registration in Great Britain. To this end, we have recently tabled amendments to the Political Parties and Elections Bill that will allow the Secretary of State to pilot data matching schemes under which public authorities will provide registration officers with information to assist them in maintaining an accurate and comprehensive register. In addition, we plan to introduce secondary legislation to enable EROs in areas where there are two tiers of local government to be able to access data held by the higher tier to help them identify individuals who are not registered to vote. This will mirror arrangements in place for EROs in single tier areas.
The Government have no current plans to produce a league table of electoral registration officers’ performance in respect of registration rates. However, the performance standards framework established by the Electoral Administration Act 2006 provides for the Electoral
Commission to set and monitor performance standards for electoral administrators, including EROs.
The Electoral Commission published a final set of performance standards for Electoral Registration Officers in Great Britain in July 2008. details of which have been laid before the House. The Commission will publish the results of EROs’ self-assessments against the standards in spring 2009.
It is not known which local authorities (a) do and (b) do not give turnout targets for their electoral registration departments as part of their corporate policy goals as this is not collected centrally.
Chris Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many electoral registration staff in each local authority area have a recognised national certificate or diploma; and what plans he has to encourage electoral registration staff to study for such qualifications. [260170]
Mr. Wills: Working in partnership with key stakeholders, including the Association of Electoral Administrators (AEA), the Electoral Commission (EC) undertook to produce a set of National Occupational Standards (NOS) for Electoral Registration Officers. A final set of NOS for this group of workers was approved by Skills Plus in August 2007.
Information on the number of electoral registration staff in each local authority area who have a recognised national certificate or diploma is not collected centrally and to do so now would result in disproportionate costs as each authority would have to be contacted individually. However, the following numbers have been awarded since 1997 when the AEA Qualification (which is now linked to NOS) was launched:
England/Wales—296
Scotland—42
England/Wales/Scotland—30
The Qualification was only launched in Northern Ireland in 2008.
While it is for each local authority to identify their employees’ training needs, officials from the Ministry of Justice will meet with representatives from the EC and AEA to see if there is anything we can do to help encourage electoral registration staff to study for such qualifications.
Chris Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice if he will assess the merits of using (a) council tax registration, (b) census and (c) labour force survey data to augment the electoral register; and if he will make a statement. [260174]
Mr. Wills:
Electoral registration officers (ERO) are authorised to inspect the records kept by the local authority that appointed them, and those kept by any registrar of births and deaths, for the purpose of their registration duties. Those records include council tax records. By virtue of provision made in the Electoral Administration Act 2006, EROs are required to make such use of these powers as are necessary to comply with their duty of maintaining electoral registers. The Government remains concerned about the need to address
levels of under-registration in Great Britain. To this end, the Government tabled amendments to the Political Parties and Elections Bill that we accepted at Commons report that will allow the Secretary of State to pilot data matching schemes under which public authorities will provide registration officers with information to assist them in maintaining an accurate and comprehensive register.
Chris Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how much was spent per elector on voter registration in each local authority area ranked in descending order of expenditure for the last year in which figures are available. [260176]
Mr. Wills: As my hon. Friend, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Ministry of Justice (Bridget Prentice) explained in answer to a similar question from the hon. Member on 18 June 2008, (Official Report, columns 999-1000W), funding for electoral registration activities such as advertising is included in the local authority formula grant issued by central Government. Once these funds are allocated, decisions on how they are utilised are a matter for the local authorities concerned. It is not known how much was spent in total or per elector for electoral registration in each local authority area, as these figures are not collected, and therefore no rankings are available. There has been no recent UK-wide assessment of the trends in the annual expenditure of local authority electoral registration officers. However, as part of its work in developing Performance Standards for electoral services, the Electoral Commission launched a financial information survey across Great Britain on 10 September 2007. Electoral Registration Officers and Returning Officers were asked to complete the survey and return it by 31 July 2008. The Commission is currently analysing this information in conjunction with CIPFA (the Chartered Institute of Public Finance Accountants) and will publish results in due course.
Chris Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what assessment his Department has made of the main reasons for non-registration of voters. [260177]
Mr. Wills: The Government have not commissioned or evaluated any recent research on the reasons for non-registration. However, the Government did utilise some existing research concerning the attitudes and motivations of the electorate, as commissioned by the then Department of Constitutional Affairs in 2005, as a basis for further work towards identifying an evidence base for policy development and service targets in the electoral field.
The Electoral Commission found in their report, ‘Understanding Electoral Registration’, published in September 2005 that the most likely electors not to be registered to vote included young people, those residing in private rented accommodation and those belonging to certain minority ethnic groups.
Section 9 of the Electoral Administration Act 2006 placed a new, explicit duty on Electoral Registration Officers (ERO) to take all steps that are necessary for the purpose of complying with their duty to maintain the registers. These steps include sending the annual canvass form more than once, making house to house inquiries in connection with the canvass, making contact
by such other means as the ERO thinks appropriate with a person who does not have an entry in the register, and inspecting records that the ERO is permitted to inspect, which should help to tackle under-registration.
The Government remain concerned about the need to address levels of under-registration in Great Britain. To this end. we have recently tabled amendments to the Political Parties and Elections Bill, that will allow the Secretary of State to pilot data matching schemes, under which public authorities will provide registration officers with information to assist them in maintaining an accurate and comprehensive register. In addition, we plan to introduce secondary legislation to enable EROs in areas where there are two tiers of local government to be able to access data held by the higher tier to help them identify individuals who are not registered to vote. This will mirror arrangements in place for EROs in single tier areas.
Chris Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what guidelines have been issued on follow-up procedures to be used by electoral registration officers in relation to individuals who have failed to register; whether he plans to amend those guidelines; and if he will introduce a duty on local authority canvassers to visit people eligible to but who do not register to vote. [260178]
Mr. Wills: The Electoral Administration Act 2006 introduced a new, explicit requirement for Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) to take all steps that are necessary for the purpose of complying with their duty to maintain the electoral registers. These steps, as set out in the legislation, include sending the canvass form more than once, making house to house inquiries in connection with the canvass, making contact by such other means as the ERO thinks appropriate with a person who does not have an entry in the register, and inspecting any record that the ERO is permitted by law to inspect. There are, therefore, already requirements on EROs to make contact with people who are not included on the register where necessary. We are happy to keep under review ways in which the duty could be made more explicit in a way that would be useful.
Issuing guidelines for EROs falls within the Electoral Commission's remit and they published a guidance manual on all aspects of managing electoral registration to support EROs in Great Britain on 24 February 2008. This manual is regularly updated and specifically deals with matters in relation to undertaking an annual canvass, the appointment of canvassers and the requirement to make house visits to non-responding households.
Freedom of Information
Mr. Dai Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice if he will bring forward legislative proposals to repeal section 53(2) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000. [260040]
Mr. Wills: The Government have no plans to bring forward legislative proposals to repeal section 53(2) of the Freedom of Information Act.
Government's Trading Funds Review
Mr. Todd: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice (1) what consultation his Department has conducted with external organisations as part of the review of Government Trading Funds; [260199]
(2) what discussions his Department has had with Treasury officials on the future of the Land Registry as part of the Government’s Trading Fund Review; and if he will make a statement; [260202]
(3) what discussions his Department has had with the Shareholder Executive as part of the Government’s Trading Fund Review; and if he will make a statement. [260203]
Mr. Wills: The Ministry of Justice have not consulted external organisations as part of the review of Government trading funds, prior to the emerging findings of the study being reported at Budget 2009. However, officials leading the trading funds assessment held discussions with interested public, private and third sector organisations in helping to develop the work of the study.
MOJ officials are, however, fully involved in continuing discussions with HM Land Registry, the Shareholder Executive and Treasury as part of the trading funds assessment.
Jean Charles de Menezes
Simon Hughes: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice (1) what his latest estimate is of the cost of the de Menezes inquest; and if he will make a statement; [260586]
(2) pursuant to the answer of 9 December 2008, Official Report, column 405, on the de Menezes inquest, what discussions he has had with the London boroughs of Southwark, Lambeth, Lewisham and Greenwich on sharing the cost of the inquest; and if he will make a statement. [260585]
Mr. Straw: The estimated cost at 17 December 2008 is £2.157 million although this figure is not final. The Government have agreed that this inquest is exceptional and financial support to the local authorities will therefore be provided. Officials from the Ministry of Justice and the Home Office are now discussing the details with the local authorities.
Prison Sentences
Mr. Garnier: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what the (a) shortest, (b) longest and (c) average sentence tariff handed down to offenders sentenced to indeterminate sentences for public protection was in (i) 2007 and (ii) 2008. [260437]
Mr. Hanson: In 2007 the shortest tariff handed down to a prisoner sentenced to an indeterminate sentence for public protection was 28 days. The longest tariff was 11 years and 11 days. The average tariff was two years and 348 days.
In 2008 the shortest tariff was 39 days. The longest tariff was 14 years and 235 days. The average tariff was three years and 140 days.
The Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008 introduced changes to the sentencing framework for indeterminate sentenced for public protection. The amendments introduced a minimum tariff of two years below which an indeterminate sentence for public protection cannot be given except where offenders have committed extremely serious crimes in the past. These changes apply to cases sentenced on or after 14 July 2008.
These figures are taken from the Public Protection Unit Database within the National Offender Management Service. As with any large scale recording system, it is subject to possible errors arising from either data entry or processing.
Prisoners Release
Mr. Grieve: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how much expenditure has been incurred by (a) prison governors and (b) his Department making subsistence payments to offenders on end-of-custody licence. [259775]
Mr. Straw: The End of Custody Licence (ECL) scheme was announced on 19 June 2007 and came into effect on 29 June. The available information covers the period from 1 July 2007 to 31 December 2008 and is set out in the following table.
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