Written evidence submitted by 192.com
Summary
1. 192.com is the UK's largest people finding
website, and the owner of 192business, the leading UK provider
of ID verification solutions to prevent online credit card fraud.
It is used by eight million people every month in the UK. 192.com
was the first company to offer the Electoral Register to consumers
in digital form. 192.com works closely with the Information Commissioner's
Office to ensure that data protection principles are respected
and that data is published in a responsible way. 192business provides
services to the e-commerce industry to prevent credit card and
ID fraud, for anti-money laundering checks and to verify age in
the sale of age-restricted goods and services such as online gambling
and alcohol. The electoral Register is an essential tool in this
activity.
2. 192.com supports the proposals set out in
the Cabinet Office's consultation to accelerate the introduction
of Individual Electoral Registration (IER). 192.com welcomes the
Government's reassurance that during the first year of the switchover
process, no household or individual details will be removed from
the Electoral Register.
3. 192.com has an active interest in the IER
proposals with any changes in the registration process having
a direct impact on the Electoral Register and the Edited Register.
This data is vital to the services 192.com offers to business
and consumer customers, charities and individuals.
4. The Edited Register is a national resource
that plays a valuable social and economic role in the United Kingdom.
As the UK's only consented national database it is the most comprehensive
and updated source of name and address data and is used to support
a range of important activities by business, government, charities
and individuals.
5. The Edited Register has significant social
and economic benefits. Businesses rely on it to verify potential
suppliers and customers, tackle credit card fraud, meet obligations
where supplying age-restricted goods or when tracing debtors.
For charities, it helps reunite lost friends and families (including
3,000 found annually by the Salvation Army), underpins locating
and connecting organ donors, locating natural parents of adoptees
and supports fundraising. Local government relies on it for purposes
not permitted with the Full Register such as debt recovery. Individuals
rely on it for finding lost family members and for building trust
in strangers that they are about to transact with.
6. The introduction of IER offers an important
opportunity to enhance the collection and administration of voter
registration and, concomitantly, improve the Edited Register by
ensuring citizens are given an annual choice on whether to opt-out
and improving consent through standardised guidance.
7. The majority of citizens favour all uses of
the Edited Register except for direct marketing. The introduction
of IER provides an opportunity to address this concern by promoting
the Mail Preference Service (MPS) on the canvass form as the only
effective way to opt-out from receiving direct marketing.
8. Alongside the economic and socially damaging
consequences of abolishing the Edited Register there are significant
risks associated with restricting the use of this consented and
regulated database as the massive demand for people-finding is
met through alternative unlawful sources.
9. The Coalition Government has identified the
potential of data held by the public sector to generate economic
growth and improve transparency. The Edited Register is a prime
example of the economic and social benefits that can be generated
from consented release of public data.
Why maintain the Edited Electoral Register?
10. 192.com welcomes the Government's draft proposals
on IER and strongly supports the central premise set out in the
draft legislation by the Cabinet Office giving the decision on
registration and voting rights to the individual rather than the
"head" of the household. The move to IER offers an important
opportunity to improve the collection and administration of voter
registration and, concomitantly, improve consent.
11. The Edited Register came into being in 2002
after the court decision in the Robertson case,_ so that the valuable
data on the register would continue to be available to serve important
purposes whilst giving proper consideration to the privacy of
individuals who did not wish their data to be used for other purposes.
At that time, it was decided to create a new Edited Register to
allow these uses to continue whilst providing people with the
right to opt-out.
12. The Edited Register is a national resource
that plays a valuable social and economic role in the United Kingdom.
It is the UK's only large scale, consented, source of name and
address data.
13. The previous Government launched a Consultation
regarding the future of the Edited Register. This sprang solely
from a claim by electoral administrators that the existence of
the Edited Register acts as a disincentive for people to register
to vote. When challenged through FOI requests, not a single electoral
roll officer was able to offer any evidence of this assertion.
Indeed some commented that they thought it acted as an incentive
for some people to register.
14. It assists businesses to reduce exposure
to credit card and identity fraud, meet age-verification obligations,
conduct due diligence and pursue bad debts and supports the reunification
of dormant financial assets with their owners. 192.com services
small businesses that are unable to access CRA data; 97% of businesses,
employing 60% of the private sector work force are small.
15. It facilitates the successful tracing of
thousands of missing persons each year to reunite families and
friends by charities and individuals. One division of the Salvation
Army alone made 3,000 such reconnections last year and reports
that people finding websites were indispensable in as many as
80% of the cases._ Furthermore, it is an essential tool in charitable
activity to find and connect organ donors, enables the work of
adoption organisations, as well as supporting fundraising.
16. Local government relies on it for purposes
not permitted with the Full Register such as debt recovery. If
the Edited Register were to be abolished, local authorities would
suffer a significant loss in revenue or, if use of the Full Register
were to be extended, the Government would likely face challenges
under the Human Rights act for forcing people to register to vote
whilst using their data for non-consented purposes.
17. Individuals rely on it for finding lost family
members and for building trust in strangers that they are about
to transact with. In an increasingly online world millions of
people transact with people that they have never met and where
they need a way of building confidence that the person is who
they say they are. Reference to public datasets is invaluable
for this purpose.
18. Independent opinion research demonstrates
public support for the Edited Register with only 2.5 % not supporting
its continuation._ It is important that the transition to IER
reflects the strong level of support.
19. Research by Europe Economics found that there
would be "very considerable adverse economic effects together
with social impact" if the Edited Register were abolished.
It found that abolition would cost the economy between £6.7
billion-£13.5 billion over 10 years._ In addition it estimated
that the number of foregone family reunifications over the next
ten years would range between 367,696 and 1,451,164. It is important
to use the transition to IER to embed best practice in the registration
process to increase the benefits of this dataset. 192.com's modelling
shows that, but for pejorative practices conducted by the majority
of electoral administrators, at least 73% of the UK population
would have consented to inclusion on the Edited Register, dramatically
increasing the inherent value of the Edited Register data to users
of this data including charities, local authorities and businesses._
20. Ending pre-ticking and techniques to encourage
opt-out would have a significant economic impact. Europe Economics
found that the cost to the economy of abolishing the Edited Register
in a scenario where pre-ticking has ended would be £11.6
billion-£13.5 billion compared to £6.7 billion-£7.8
billion where pre-ticking continued and trends on opt-out levels
were maintained._ This recognises that an Edited Register without
pre-ticking would be £4.9-5.7 billion more valuable to the
economy over the next 10 years than an Edited Register with pre-ticking
continued.
21. The Edited Register performs a vital role
in meeting the ongoing demand for data through a regulated system.
An independent review of the direct and indirect effects of abolition
of the Edited Register identified that the following impacted
parties would express a demand for alternative data sources in
the event that the it becomes less effective:_
· Asset
reunification services as the costs of tracing without the Edited
Register would increase by 300% making smaller companies struggle
to survive.
· Debt
collection services because collecting smaller debts would become
uneconomic which would mean loss of business.
· Direct
marketing firms and fundraising charities because the costs incurred
by marketing companies could be as high as £365 million.
· About
13% of the UK adult population involved in genealogy as they would
remain interested in the family history research.
· About
nine million unique users per month of people finding websites
because they would still seek services that would help them verify
strangers or trace old friends and family.
22. This demand would be impossible to meet with
current legal data sources, such as the Phonebook or the database
of UK company directors, as these are too small and the Phonebook
cannot be searched nationally. Social networks, such as Facebook,
are not an effective replacement because: i) they do not provide
addresses so lack a geographic context, ii) profiles are easily
invented (they are not formal records); and iii) coverage is skewed
towards the younger generation.
23. If the demand for people-finding is not met
through a consented and regulated database it will lead to an
inevitable increase in unlawful data. Three potential supply routes
to an illegal market in data to meet the continuing demand include:
· Data
misuse—research found that 71.2% of local authorities who
responded to FOI requests admitted to using the Full Register
for issues considered by Hugh Tomlinson QC to be unlawful including
assessing benefits and tracing parking fines._
· Full
Register access—copies of the Full Register could be disclosed
by sources and organisations that have legitimate access to the
data to those that do not. The potential for misuse is clear from
FOI responses—only 32% of local authorities required employees
to sign undertaking even though the Electoral Commission advised
councils to implement this procedure; only 14% logged searches;
and only 6% had carried out an audit in the last year to check
usage logs._
· Marketing
data—offshore sources already offer unconsented databases
of marketing data and this practice would increase in a landscape
where there was no regulated onshore competition. This data would
not only be data that was collected for other purposes but would
include many people that would have opted out of the Edited Register.
These sites would be outside the reach of the ICO, a point of
real concern that has been expressed by the ICO.
Ultimately, those that have a strong desire for privacy
will have their wishes abused and the Government may face criticism
for failing to safeguard personal data.
Role of IER in Improving the EER
24. The Government can utilise the introduction
of IER to improve the quality of the Edited Register in support
of the benefits outlined above. This will involve addressing some
of the systematic practices that have been used by the overwhelming
majority of electoral administrators to achieve increased opt-out
rates.
25. Foremost among these is the practice of pre-ticking
the canvass form for people that have previously opted-out. Rather
than give citizens an annual choice a number of electoral administrators
admit that if a person has previously opted-out of the Edited
Register the canvass form is pre-printed with an opt-out tick.
This is despite clear guidance from the Electoral Commission that
pre-ticking is a breach of regulations._ The effect of this policy
is clear: opt-out rates for councils that pre-tick are around
47% compared to just 27% for those that do not pre-tick._
26. If the majority of electoral administrators
had not ignored Electoral Commission advice then all the evidence
suggests that the Edited Register would now be growing in size
as more and more people became comfortable with its use. In June
2010 the AEA finally advised its members that the practice is
illegal. Nonetheless it is for each electoral administrator to
make a decision: to remove any doubt the Government should take
immediate action to ban the practice of pre-ticking.
27. Opinion research clearly shows that a majority
of consumers favour all uses of the Edited Register except direct
marketing. 72% of those people that had opted out had done so
in order to avoid direct marketing._ This reflects that the current
Canvass Form and guidance notes to the public consistently focus
on the use of the Edited Register for direct marketing giving
the false impression that opting out will prevent direct mail
when it will not.
28. The introduction of IER provides an opportunity
to address this concern by promoting the MPS on the canvass form
as the only effective way to opt-out from receiving direct marketing.
The Direct Marketing Association operates MPS because it positively
removes those people who do not want to receive direct marketing.
These people are unlikely to respond positively to direct marketing
and MPS allows it to be more targeted and to operate more efficiently.
29. Currently only Direct Marketing Association
members are obliged to use MPS to suppress those addresses that
do not wish to receive direct mail. A statutory obligation could
be placed on all direct marketing companies to make use of the
MPS, rather than just the proportion of industry signed up to
a professional Code of Conduct.
Use IER Implementation to Improve Consent
30. As the only consented national database in
the UK it is essential that the shift to IER is used to enhance
citizen confidence in the Edited Register. The accelerated introduction
of IER will enhance the completeness and integrity of the Electoral
Register. 192.com supports the proposals to require each elector
to register to vote individually rather than by household. This
will provide the opportunity for each individual to make an informed
choice on whether to opt-out of the Register, rather than leaving
the choice to whoever responds on behalf of the household as is
presently the case.
31. It is clear that the language on canvass
forms and guidance given by electoral administrators is inaccurate,_
fails to properly inform the public of the purposes to which the
Edited Register might be put (not least the positive uses) and
thereby misleads the public. For example, the current statutory
wording says the Edited Register can "be used for any purpose
…by any person, company or organisation". This is inaccurate
as any user has to be a registered data controller under the Data
Protection Act 1998 and it may only be used for any purpose that
is permitted under the DPA. In addition, the layout of the canvass
form varies across local authorities.
32. The introduction of IER provides an opportunity
to address the significant variation in the canvass form and guidance
notes. The public would benefit from the introduction of clearer,
more accurate and more balanced wording allowing a properly informed
choice to be made. 192.com therefore welcomes the proposal for
legislation to require EROs to provide potential electors with
canvass forms that are of a consistent standard designed by the
Electoral Commission, or such manner as may be prescribed, as
this would enhance integrity in the electoral system. All written
communication with voters affecting the Edited Register should
be standardised.
33. In implementing IER the Government should
ensure canvass forms address the following consistently:
make clear that the Edited Register only contains
an individual's name and address and will not include any of the
personal information required as part of the IER (such as National
Insurance number);
explain the benefits of being on the Edited Register
such as improving credit rating, and making it easier to buy goods
and services on-line to address years of consistently misleading
information;
reassure citizens that their information will only
be used in accordance with the highest standards of data protection
principles. The data may only be used by companies registered
with the Information Commissioner's Office and within the provisions
of the Data Protection Act; and
signpost citizens to the MPS as the way to opt-out
from receiving direct mail.
Maintaining Opt-Out as Default Option
34. The Edited Register was created following
the Robertson decision to allow households to make an informed
decision on whether their details should be available; the right
to "opt-out" protects their right to privacy while maintaining
the effectiveness of the Edited Register.
35. One of the options put forward by the last
Government was to move from the current opt-out system to an opt-in
system. Inevitably, this will lead to a significant further drop
in the size of the Edited Register thus reducing its economic
and social value.
36. Behavioural economics explains how people
act in response to an opt-in mechanism compared to an opt-out
model. A Cabinet Office commissioned report explained: "Many
decisions we take every day have a default option, whether we
recognise it or not. Defaults are the options that are pre-selected
if an individual does not make an active choice. Defaults exert
influence as individuals regularly accept whatever the default
setting is, even if it has significant consequences."_
37. In the context of Edited Register those people
with a strong desire to privacy will ensure they are not listed
and those with a strong desire to be listed will ensure that they
are. But there is a large group whose natural inclination leads
them to adopt the default position. The Government's Behavioural
Insights Team has accepted this noting "A key insight from
behavioural science is the tendency of individuals to go with
the flow of pre-set options, or defaults…"_
38. This can be illustrated with reference to
organ donation mechanisms: where countries operate presumed consent
the numbers of people registered to donate are dramatically higher
than in those that operate an opt-in model._
39. In framing public policy government should
seek to structure the default option to maximise benefits for
citizens which can influence behaviour without restricting individual
choice. In the case of the Edited Register, it is clear there
are significant economic and social benefits. If government accepts
that the availability of a national database of names and addresses
is beneficial to society, it should retain the "opt-out"
mechanism, the same as the Phone Book.
40. Despite the clear evidence of public support
for continuation of the Edited Register, behavioural theory indicates
strongly that moving to an opt-in system would "kill"
the effectiveness of the Edited Register. All of the economic
and social benefits enabled by the Edited Register depend upon
a critical mass of users. Because the majority would tend to follow
the default option, an opt-in system would ensure that critical
mass is lost.
41. For eight years voters have been presented
with an opt-out box on the canvass form. Reversing this mechanism
by changing it to an opt-in will create further confusion at a
time of significant change with the introduction of IER. People
that have previously opted out will opt back in because they expect
the tick box to mean the same as before, and many of those that
previously decided to be on the register by not ticking will effectively
remove themselves. Any resulting confusion may undermine the shift
to IER.
42. If, as a result of an opt-in mechanism being
introduced, the number of people on the Edited Register drops
dramatically, there are implications for the revenue earning opportunity
for local authorities In the event of a smaller Edited Register,
the Electoral Administrators will be faced with the same cost
and workload to create it but will not receive the rewards that
could be made available. Moreover the broader opportunities, identified
by the Government's focus on open data, to generate economic value
by access to this resource will be significantly undermined.
43. For this and many other reasons, if the Edited
Register is retained it should remain an opt-out system thereby
maximising the size of the database and the benefits that can
be derived by society and the economy.
September 2011
_ Robertson v Wakefield Metropolitan Council
_ An input to a full impact assessment on abolition
of the Edited Electoral Register Europe Economics 31 March 2011
_ Survey conducted in Feb 2010 by Opinion Matters
see Annex 1, I-CD Publishing response to MoJ Electoral Register
Consultation CP 46/09 Feb 2010
_ An input to a full impact assessment on abolition
of the Edited Electoral Register, Europe Economics 31 March 2011
_ I-CD Publishing Response to MoJ Electoral Registers
Consultation CP 46/09 Februrary 2010 paras 143-6
_ An input to a full impact assessment on abolition
of the Edited Electoral Register Europe Economics 31 March 2011
_ Ibid
_ Rumbled: the councils that don't register they
are breaking the law Parliamentary Brief 28 April 2011
_ Ibid
_ Managing Electoral Registration in Great Britain,
Guidance for EROs Electoral Commission Part C, Paras 130-1 http://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0006/42927/Full-ERO-FINAL_amended_March_2010_v2.pdf
_ I-CD Publishing response to MoJ Electoral Register
Consultation CP 46/09, para. 143 February 2010
_ Ibid, Annex 1 Q4
_ Ibid paras 144-146
_ Mindspace—Influencing behaviour through public
policy Institute for Government March 2010
_ Behaviour Change and Energy Use Cabinet Office
July 2011 p.23
_ Ibid p.23
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