Running electoral registration - England

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) Customer Information System (CIS) is an amalgamated data source, containing data received from internal DWP systems, as well as other government sources, such as His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC).

A match level is sent to the Electoral Registration Online Portal (EROP) which shows either a match or a no match result against each application. You will need to assess whether the applicant’s identity has been established.

Match

If DWP returns a match result for an applicant’s identity, you can be confident that the applicant is the person they claim to be on their application.

No match

If a no match result is returned by DWP, this indicates that it has not been possible to establish that person’s identity and you should not be satisfied that the applicant is the person that they claim to be on their application at this stage.

You may contact the applicant to query the information given on the application using any communication channel that you have contact details for. You should ask the applicant to supply their full application information - name, address, DOB and NINo. These details should be checked against the original application. You should not supply any details of any information given in an application to the applicant.

If the information provided by the applicant confirms they have made an error on their application, you can correct the application and should resubmit their personal identifiers for a further check. If you make a change to an applicant’s application based on additional information supplied by them, you should tell them that in their confirmation letter. You should not include any personal identifier information (NINo and DOB) in the letter.

If no error has been made on the application, you should write to the elector to inform them that it has not been possible to verify their identity and request they supply documentary proof of their identity; this is known as the exceptions process.