2021 canvass in Great Britain: July - September

Purpose

This report highlights the key findings from our engagement with EROs from July to September 2021, and also draws out some examples of good practice which have emerged.

Summary

Data provided by Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) has shown that the allocation of properties to canvass routes after national and local data matching has followed a similar pattern this year to last. 

75% of properties were allocated to Route 1 – the matched property route, which EROs use to canvass properties where they are satisfied that there are no changes needed and have no reason to believe that there are any additional electors to be added. 24% of properties were allocated to Route 2, which is the route EROs use where they think changes are needed to the register. 

Good progress is being reported with delivery of the canvass as a whole, with the majority of EROs not having identified any significant barriers to delivering this year’s canvass (75%). However, of the remainder of respondents, nearly two-thirds noted that budgeting/funding and/or staffing have been particularly challenging elements of the canvass so far this year.

We will continue to engage with EROs and their teams over the remainder of the canvass and throughout the period leading up to the May 2022 elections, and will next report on the findings from this engagement and our analysis of the data and information we are provided, following the publication of the annual registers. 

Plymouth City Council: increasing the number of contact phone numbers

Since 2018 Plymouth City Council have been taking steps to increase their database of contact phone numbers. This work has included inputting contact details collected from all HEFs and ITRs, which are checked and updated as necessary when new information is received from the household or as a result of checking against local data sets monthly (for example, any changes from Council Tax, Payroll and Parking).

All residents accessing services online are asked for their email address and contact numbers (landline and mobile), which are then shared with the ERO. The use of the data is highlighted to the resident at the point the information is collected. 

All data gathering activities have been pre-agreed with the Council’s Data Information Officer and are in line with GDPR.

In the last year, Plymouth City Council electoral services team have been able to harvest and import contact details from pre-agreed local data sets – Council Tax, Payroll and Parking, to their electoral management system. This is in addition to the contact details that are collected through communications with residents by email and telephone directly to the electoral services team.

Plymouth City Council now hold contact details for over 50% of their electorate – compared to less than 5% in January 2018
 

Cheshire West and Chester: considering impact

Cheshire West and Chester have developed a set of high-level measures that take into consideration the overall outcomes of the performance standards and the activities undertaken by the ERO. They are using the available data to identify areas where improvements may be made and to set benchmarks for their performance.  We are continuing to work closely with them as they build from this to develop future targets for their KPIs, to support reporting on the success of their activities.

Measuring impact continued

Amongst those who said that they do not currently have KPIs in place, there was a general view that whilst they are looking at their available data to understand what it is telling them and identifying where improvements can be made, they are doing so in an informal, undocumented way. 

We have found that EROs and their teams are generally keen to explore setting up KPIs, and we are committed to supporting them to get more formalised KPIs in place to help them to better understand and demonstrate the impact of their activity. We will continue to draw out and share further examples of KPIs being used by EROs which others might find helpful. 

We are also starting work with a sample group of EROs to develop a reporting template informed by examples of how they report on their KPIs and wider performance, and will make this available to assist other EROs and their teams with reporting on performance.