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931555

registered interest
date	26/06/2018
answering body	Cabinet Office
answering dept id	53
answering dept short name	Cabinet Office
answering dept sort name	Cabinet Office
hansard heading	Electoral Register
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many posts there have been from official Governmental social media accounts on (a) Facebook, (b) Twitter and (c) any other social media platform to raise awareness of voter registration deadlines in each of the last four years.
tabling member constituency	Vale of Clwyd
tabling member printed	Chris Ruane
uin	157664
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 02/07/2018 answer text <p>The Government recognises that social media can be an effective tool in increasing democratic awareness in all groups, particularly amongst those groups who are less likely to be registered to vote, such as young people.</p><p>The primary legal responsibility for maintaining complete and accurate registers lies with Electoral Registration Officers; the Electoral Commission (EC) also has a statutory duty to promote awareness of elections, including registration. In this capacity the EC leads public awareness campaigns on voter registration, notably ahead of elections.</p><p>Working in partnership with the EC, Cabinet Office has coordinated cross-Government support for these campaigns. This includes sharing campaign materials through government social media accounts, such as Facebook and Twitter, as well as wider networks. No central record is kept of the volumes of these activities.</p><p>In addition to cascading messages on social media, the Government has also funded local authorities and civil society organisations such as Mencap, Bite the Ballot and Operation Black Vote to promote voter registration ahead of polls. Register to vote reminder messages were also added to high traffic GOV.UK pages, such as DVLA and HMRC.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Norwich North answering member printed Chloe Smith question first answered 02/07/2018 13:46:58 answering member 1609 label Biography information for Chloe Smith
tabling member	534 label Biography information for Chris Ruane

918432

registered interest
date	06/06/2018
answering body	Cabinet Office
answering dept id	53
answering dept short name	Cabinet Office
answering dept sort name	Cabinet Office
hansard heading	Electoral Register
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what the difference is between the number of voters on the electoral register compared to the electoral register data used for the current parliamentary boundary review.
tabling member constituency	Cardiff Central
tabling member printed	Jo Stevens
uin	150709
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 11/06/2018 answer text <p>Parliament previously agreed legislation that requires the 2018 Boundary Review to be based on the December 2015 electoral registers. Data published by ONS shows that the number of electors on these registers was 44,722,004. ONS has recently published data showing that there were 46,148,035 electors on the December 2017 electoral registers.</p><p>Registers used for a boundary review are necessarily a snapshot and the registers have always continued to change while a review takes place.</p><p>Without the current parliamentary boundary reviews, MPs could end up representing constituencies based on data that is over 20 years’ old, disregarding significant changes in demographics, house building and migration.</p> answering member constituency Norwich North answering member printed Chloe Smith question first answered 11/06/2018 15:21:22 answering member 1609 label Biography information for Chloe Smith
tabling member	4425 label Biography information for Jo Stevens

914831

registered interest
date	01/06/2018
answering body	Cabinet Office
answering dept id	53
answering dept short name	Cabinet Office
answering dept sort name	Cabinet Office
hansard heading	Electoral Register
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps he has taken to investigate the reasons for changes in the level of electoral registration in each local authority in each of the last three years.
tabling member constituency	Lancaster and Fleetwood
tabling member printed	Cat Smith
uin	148872
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 07/06/2018 answer text <p>Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) have the statutory responsibility to maintain complete and accurate electoral registers.</p><p> </p><p>While there are many reasons why levels of electoral registration in any given area may vary over time, the overall trend since the introduction of Individual Electoral Registration has been for electoral registers to grow overall. The most recent full assessment of registration was conducted in 2016 by the Electoral Commission, based on the December 2015 registers. Electoral Commission reports on electoral registration are available online:</p><p><a href="https://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/our-work/our-research/research-report-library#registration" target="_blank">https://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/our-work/our-research/research-report-library#registration</a>.</p> answering member constituency Norwich North answering member printed Chloe Smith question first answered 07/06/2018 11:36:21 answering member 1609 label Biography information for Chloe Smith
tabling member	4436 label Biography information for Cat Smith

914832

registered interest
date	01/06/2018
answering body	Cabinet Office
answering dept id	53
answering dept short name	Cabinet Office
answering dept sort name	Cabinet Office
hansard heading	Electoral Register
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what information his Department holds from electoral registration officers on the number of names removed from electoral registers in each local authority, for each permissible reason, in each of the last five years.
tabling member constituency	Lancaster and Fleetwood
tabling member printed	Cat Smith
uin	148873
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 07/06/2018 answer text <p>This information is not collated or held centrally.</p> answering member constituency Hertsmere answering member printed Oliver Dowden question first answered 07/06/2018 11:38:22 answering member 4441 label Biography information for Oliver Dowden
tabling member	4436 label Biography information for Cat Smith

914836

registered interest
date	01/06/2018
answering body	Cabinet Office
answering dept id	53
answering dept short name	Cabinet Office
answering dept sort name	Cabinet Office
hansard heading	Electoral Register
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what the total cost was of the transfer to Individual Electoral Registration; and what proportion of such costs was borne by local government.
tabling member constituency	Lancaster and Fleetwood
tabling member printed	Cat Smith
uin	148874
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 11/06/2018 answer text <p>The total cost of the Electoral Registration Transformation Programme, which introduced Individual Electoral Registration (IER) in 2014, was £116.2 million. Funding for the Programme was provided by central Government. The figure includes the cost of funding provided by central Government to local authorities to cover the additional costs associated with IER compared to the previous household system. The figure also includes the costs of establishing the IER digital service and certain voter registration activities.</p><p>Since the transition to IER, central Government has continued to provide direct funding to local authorities to cover the additional costs of IER compared to the previous household system.</p> answering member constituency Norwich North answering member printed Chloe Smith question first answered 11/06/2018 14:45:02 answering member 1609 label Biography information for Chloe Smith
tabling member	4436 label Biography information for Cat Smith

914846

registered interest
date	01/06/2018
answering body	Cabinet Office
answering dept id	53
answering dept short name	Cabinet Office
answering dept sort name	Cabinet Office
hansard heading	Electoral Register
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what discussions he has had with Ministers of the devolved administrations on increasing the levels of voter registration.
tabling member constituency	Lancaster and Fleetwood
tabling member printed	Cat Smith
uin	148881
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 07/06/2018 answer text <p>The Government is working closely with the Welsh and Scottish Governments on elections and registration issues. We are also working closely with the Northern Ireland Office and the Electoral Office for Northern Ireland, for example, on the imminent introduction of online registration.</p> answering member constituency Norwich North answering member printed Chloe Smith question first answered 07/06/2018 11:31:41 answering member 1609 label Biography information for Chloe Smith
tabling member	4436 label Biography information for Cat Smith

914962

registered interest
date	01/06/2018
answering body	Cabinet Office
answering dept id	53
answering dept short name	Cabinet Office
answering dept sort name	Cabinet Office
hansard heading	Electoral Register
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if his Department will make an assessment of the potential merits of piloting polling day voter registration to increase voter turnout.
tabling member constituency	Lancaster and Fleetwood
tabling member printed	Cat Smith
uin	148895
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 07/06/2018 answer text <p>The Government has no current plans to pilot polling day voter registration. The current system strikes an appropriate balance between ensuring eligible citizens can register close to an election and allowing electoral administrators to finalise registers allowing for the effective conduct of polls.</p> answering member constituency Norwich North answering member printed Chloe Smith question first answered 07/06/2018 11:44:29 answering member 1609 label Biography information for Chloe Smith
tabling member	4436 label Biography information for Cat Smith

914978

registered interest
date	01/06/2018
answering body	Cabinet Office
answering dept id	53
answering dept short name	Cabinet Office
answering dept sort name	Cabinet Office
hansard heading	Electoral Register
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps the Government is taking to increase voter registration within Commonwealth communities in the UK.
tabling member constituency	Lancaster and Fleetwood
tabling member printed	Cat Smith
uin	148902
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 11/06/2018 answer text <p>The Government is committed to building a fair, secure and inclusive democracy that works for everyone. The December 2017 Democratic Engagement Plan sets out our plans for doing this. We expect action under the Plan to benefit members of Commonwealth communities in the UK, alongside a wide range of other groups of eligible citizens.</p><p>At the same time, Electoral Registration Officers have a duty to maintain a complete and accurate register. They share responsibility for engaging citizens with electoral registration with the Electoral Commission, which has a statutory duty to promote public awareness</p> answering member constituency Norwich North answering member printed Chloe Smith question first answered 11/06/2018 14:39:26 answering member 1609 label Biography information for Chloe Smith
tabling member	4436 label Biography information for Cat Smith

914981

registered interest
date	01/06/2018
answering body	Cabinet Office
answering dept id	53
answering dept short name	Cabinet Office
answering dept sort name	Cabinet Office
hansard heading	Electoral Register
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether his Department has made a comparative assessment of the adequacy of national electoral registers used by (a) EU and (b) other countries in relation to the introduction of a centralised, national electoral register in the UK.
tabling member constituency	Lancaster and Fleetwood
tabling member printed	Cat Smith
uin	148904
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 07/06/2018 answer text <p>The Government has not made a comparative assessment of other countries’ electoral registers. We have no plans to introduce a centralised, national electoral register in the UK.</p> answering member constituency Norwich North answering member printed Chloe Smith question first answered 07/06/2018 11:40:11 answering member 1609 label Biography information for Chloe Smith
tabling member	4436 label Biography information for Cat Smith

915046

registered interest
date	01/06/2018
answering body	Cabinet Office
answering dept id	53
answering dept short name	Cabinet Office
answering dept sort name	Cabinet Office
hansard heading	Electoral Register
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what progress he has made on reforming the annual canvass of electors.
tabling member constituency	Lancaster and Fleetwood
tabling member printed	Cat Smith
uin	148912
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 07/06/2018 answer text <p>Although it continues to play an important role in helping to maintain register accuracy and completeness, alongside online registration, the current one-size-fits-all annual canvass process is widely recognised as being burdensome and inefficient. The Government intends to implement changes to this process that will make the canvass easier for citizens and administrators and improve overall efficiency considerably.</p><p> </p><p>In 2016 and 2017 we delivered a range of pilots that have tested alternatives to the current process. The evidence from these pilots is currently being analysed and we expect to publish findings later this month. We are currently working in close partnership with the Electoral Commission, the Association of Electoral Administrators, the Scottish Assessors Association and electoral administrators to discuss what improvements to the canvass process could be made, based on the evidence from the pilots. We are engaging directly with the devolved administrations in this work. We intend to consult on proposals later this year.</p><p>More widely, since the transition to Individual Electoral Registration and the introduction of online registration, we have delivered a number of reforms, again in partnership with the wider electoral community. This has included making a number of changes to the law (for example to allow Invitations to Register to be sent by e-mail) as well as non-legislative improvements such as continual improvement of the online platform (both the citizen interface and behind-the-scenes). In addition, in December 2017 the Government published the first ever Democratic Engagement Plan.</p> answering member constituency Norwich North answering member printed Chloe Smith grouped question UIN 148913 question first answered 07/06/2018 11:07:33 answering member 1609 label Biography information for Chloe Smith
tabling member	4436 label Biography information for Cat Smith