The UK Government has introduced the Electoral Registration and Administration Bill to implement individual electoral registration (IER) and a number of other election-related provisions. Prior to the Bill being introduced there was a process of pre-legislative scrutiny.
The timeline below shows the Government's consultations on IER, details of the enquiry by the parliamentary Political and Constitutional Reform Committee and our responses and briefings.
IER timeline
January 2013
After a pause in the Electoral Registration and Administration Bill's progress through Parliament, day 2 of the House of Lords Committee Stage took place on 14 January with Report Stage and Third Reading on 23 January.
- Follow the Bill's progress and read our briefings to Parliament on our changes to the law webpage.
October 2012
The Electoral Registration and Administration Bill begins its Committee Stage in the House of Lords on 29 October.
- Follow the Bill's progress and read our briefings to Parliament on our changes to the law webpage.
July 2012
The Electoral Registration and Administration Bill has its Second Reading in the House of Lords on 24 July. Committee Stage will start on 23 October.
- Follow the Bill's progress and read our briefings to Parliament on our changes to the law webpage.
June 2012
The Electoral Registration and Administration Bill has its Committee Stage in the House of Commons from 18 to 27 June, when it will go through Report Stage and receive its Third Reading. Secondary legislation to allow for a second set of data-matching pilots was debated and recommended for approval by the House of Commons on 19 June, and by the House of Lords on 25 June.
- Follow the Bill's progress and read our briefings to Parliament on our changes to the law webpage.
- Find out more about data-matching
May 2012
The Electoral Registration and Administration Bill was announced in the Queen's Speech at the State Opening of Parliament on 9 May. The following day the BIll was introduced and received its first reading in the House of Commons.
The Bill received its Second Reading in the House of Commons on 23 May and will now be debated in more detail at Committee Stage.
- Follow the Bill's progress and read our briefings to Parliament on our changes to the law webpage.
- View the Electoral Registration and Administration Bill and explanatory notes on the Parliament website
- View impact assessments and other supporting documents on the Cabinet Office website
- Read our statement on the inclusion of Individual Electoral Registration in the Queen's Speech
February 2012
- The UK Government's response to pre-legislative scrutiny was published on 9 February.
- We published our statement on the response to pre-legislative scrutiny (PDF) and a press release on our expectations for the IER Bill
January 2012
IER was debated in both Houses of Parliament and we issued briefings.
- Our briefing for the House of Lords debate on IER - 12 January
- Our briefing for the House of Commons opposition day debate on IER - 16 January
November 2011
- The report by the Political and Constitutional Reform (PCR) Committee on its enquiry into IER was published on 4 November.
- We issued a statement welcoming the findings of the PCR Committee (PDF)
October 2011
- On 14 October 2011 we published our response to the IER White Paper, as well as our response to the other electoral administration provisions
September 2011
The PCR Committee in Parliament undertook an enquiry into the IER proposals
- Watch the our oral evidence to the PCR Committee on the Parliament website.
- Read the our written submission to the PCR Committee and evidence from other organisations and individuals on the Parliament website.
July 2011
- The UK Government published it IER White Paper and Draft Bill (PDF) which outline how IER will be implemented.
- We released a statement on the IER proposals (PDF)
As part of the implementation of IER Electoral Registration Officers at local authorities will be allowed access to data held by other public bodies, such as national insurance records and data from colleges and universities. For more information please see our data-matching webpage.
You can also find out about our role in IER - including our electoral registration research.
