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Individual electoral registration

On this page you can find information about the move from the currrent system of household registration to Individual Electoral Registration (IER). This page will be updated regularly with any recent developments. It contains information about:

Latest updates

9 February 2012: Government's response to pre-legislative scrutiny

The Government has published its response to the Political and Constitutional Reform Committee's report of 4 November 2011 on IER.

Read our statement | Read our news release | Read the Government's response

4 November 2011: Political and Constitutional Reform Committee report

The Political and Constitutional Reform Committee has published its report on the Government’s proposals for individual electoral registration (IER).

We were grateful for the opportunity to give written and oral evidence to the Committee’s inquiry, as part of the important pre-legislative scrutiny of the Government’s plans. We are pleased that the Committee’s report adds to the wide support for the introduction of IER, which we have been calling for since 2003.

Read the Committee's report  | Read our statement 

14 October 2011: Our response to the Government's draft IER Bill

In our response to the Government’s White Paper on proposals to introduce IER, we welcome IER.

We believe that it is the right thing to do as the current system is vulnerable to fraud, and it is right that people take responsibility for their own votes.

Also: Read our response to the other provisions in the Bill | Read our press release 

30 June 2011: Publication of IER White paper

In June 2011 the Government published its IER White paper (PDF) that sets out the proposed steps involved in moving to a system of individual registration. Read our statement on the White paper here (PDF)  

Background to the introduction of IER

In Great Britain, the vast majority of electors register via the annual canvass, where, currently, a form is sent to the “head of household”. This person returns the form on behalf of everyone living in that accommodation. A minority of people register via rolling registration, where individuals are responsible for filling in their own registration form.

Registration by household was introduced in the 19th century and belongs to a different era, not reflecting today’s reality for those who live in, for example, flat-shares or house-shares, in bedsits or in student accommodation. Great Britain is the only remaining modern Western democracy that still has a system of household registration.

The Electoral Commission has been calling for a move from household registration to individual registration in Great Britain since 2003.

Read more about the background to IER

The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, the Committee on Standards in Public Life and the Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust all support individual registration. Research carried out by the Committee on Standards in Public Life (CSPL) in 2008 found that nearly two thirds (63%) of respondents thought that the individual registration system used in Northern Ireland was preferable to the current household registration used in Great Britain.

In July 2009, the Political Parties and Elections Act 2009 as passed. The Act proposed a move to IER via a voluntary phase (where, initially, identifiers would be requested but not a condition of registration) with pilots of data-matching schemes that aim to improve the quality of the register.

In May 2010, the Conservative – Liberal Democrat Coalition agreement made a commitment to speed up the introduction of IER and to achieve this before the next scheduled General Election in 2015.  

Legislation to introduce IER

In June 2011 the Government published its IER White Paper that sets out the proposed steps involved in moving to a system of individual registration. You can read our statement here (PDF). 

Read more about the legislation

A Bill to implement IER is expected before Parliament in May 2012. Prior to this the Government has been consulting on its proposals. In October 2011 we published our response to the consultation on the IER White Paper.

The White Paper has also been considered by the House of Commons’ Political and Constitutional Reform Committee. Their report is available on the Parliament website. There are links to our evidence to the Committee under ‘briefings and correspondence’ below.

On 9 February the Government published its response to this pre-legislative scrutiny, which is available on the Cabinet Office website.

We welcome IER, and the willingness of the Government to undertake extensive consultation and pre-legislative scrutiny. However, there are still many key decisions to be made by the Government. 
 

Key principles which should underpin the introduction of IER

IER needs to be implemented in a way that puts the voter first. It will be a significant change for people and so we want to be sure that the system is introduced in such a way as to maximise completeness and accuracy of the electoral registers. Individual registration will also be a significant change for Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) who will need time to prepare for its introduction, in particular, updating their systems to ensure security of personal data and to enable them to check the information provided.

Find out about our key principles

In 2010, we set out our key principles which should underpin the effective introduction of individual registration in Great Britain:

  • The system should not prevent anyone who is eligible to take part in elections in Great Britain from registering to vote.
  • The system should ensure that anyone who is not eligible to vote is not included in an electoral register.
  • These changes to the system should be easily explained to, and understood by, electors.
  • The system should ensure that all personal data is properly managed and protected.
  • The system should be capable of being implemented efficiently and without a detrimental impact on the existing duties and responsibilities of EROs.

For more information, see Monitoring the introduction of individual electoral registration: our proposed approach (PDF)

The Electoral Commission’s role in implementing IER

We want to ensure that the UK Parliament is able to draw on robust evidence about the implementation of IER. As the independent expert body, we will:

  • develop and deliver a programme of research to support scrutiny and assessment of the impact of these changes; 
  • evaluate the government’s data matching schemes to assess the extent to which they improve the quality of the electoral register;
  • support government, EROs and others to ensure that a clear and robust plan is developed for implementing individual registration;
  • provide guidance and support to help electoral registration officers collect personal identifiers; and,
  • develop and coordinate a programme of public awareness activity to ensure electors understand what they need to do under the new registration system.

Our research

On 14 December 2011 we published a report on the quality of the electoral registers across Great Britain.

The research, funded by the Cabinet Office, is based on a national survey and assesses the accuracy and completeness of the registers.

The findings will inform debate on future changes to the registration system.

This research builds on our two previous reports on the quality of the Great Britain electoral registers. These can be downloaded below:

If you have any queries about the research or would like further information please contact us at info@electoralcommission.org.uk or on 020 7271 0500.

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