Individual Electoral Registration – draft legislation

On 30 June 2011 the government published plans to implement Individual Electoral Registration (IER). The draft legislation and White paper on IER set out in detail the proposed new system of registration.

These proposals outline the government’s plans to take forward the commitment in the Coalition Agreement to speed up the move to IER and tackle electoral fraud. The current household registration system will be replaced by individual registration. Every elector will have to register individually and provide identifying information which will be used to verify their entitlement to be included in the electoral register. Only once their application has been verified can a person be added to the register. This will help to restore trust in electoral system.

As part of the move to IER, the government is also committed to taking steps to improve the completeness of the register. In June, the government launched a series of data matching pilots to test how far comparing electoral registers against other public databases will allow eligible people missing from the register to be identified and asked if they would like to register. Based on the outcome of these pilots, a decision will be made on whether to roll this out more widely. The pilots were provided for in separate legislation and signed into law in June 2011.

The draft legislation is currently undergoing pre-legislative scrutiny and the plan is for the Bill to enter Parliament by the New Year.

We would like to thank members of the public and those organisations who have provided comments on government’s proposals for Individual Electoral Registration. The consultation has now closed. However, you can share your views on IER by emailing the Electoral Registration Transformation Programme on electoralregistration@cabinet-office.gsi.gov.uk.

Read the secondary draft legislation here.