Running electoral registration - England
Access to polling station data / statistics
This guidance outlines the legal requirements for the collation and sharing of data and the aim is to support EROs (and ROs where relevant) to make decisions on whether the requested data can be shared, and if appropriate how and when to share that local data.
Ballot Paper Refusal List
The Ballot Paper Refusal List (BPRL) must be completed by polling station staff for
all polls. Information from the BPRL must not be disclosed other than in the following instances:
- to the elector, whose ballot paper was refused, or in the case of a proxy being refused a ballot paper, the person acting as proxy or the elector on whose behalf they were acting as a proxy
- by an order of court
VIDEF (voter identification document evaluation form) information
At the next UK Parliamentary election, polling station staff will be required by law to collect data throughout polling day in relation to the checking of photographic ID and assist with the evaluation of how the ID requirements are working in practice.
Additionally, although not legally required to do so, ROs may decide to collect data at other polls in relation to the checking of photographic ID.
You must, as soon as practicable after taking receipt of the polling station VIDEFs, anonymise the data contained on them (for example, by destroying any related VIDEF notes sheets, or by removing any elector details recorded on the VIDEF for the purpose of capturing any of the required data).
Statutory data collection at the next UKPGE
For the statutory collection of VIDEF information, the data collected must be collated into two separate groups:
- one group providing total figures for all polling stations where voters were given an explanation of the photographic ID requirement before they applied for a ballot paper (e.g. where staff were appointed to greet voters and explain the requirements as they entered the polling station)
- one group providing total figures for all polling stations where voters were not given an explanation of the photographic ID requirement
In summary, these two sets of data that must be collated and must not be published or otherwise shared are as follows:
Where 'greeters' are used: | Where no 'greeters' are used: |
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The anonymised, collated data from the polling station VIDEFs is not open for inspection, and you must not disclose this information to anyone apart from the statutory duty to share information with the Secretary of State and the Electoral Commission (if requested to do so). Following the UK Parliamentary election we will update you on the process for providing the required anonymised and collated information to the Electoral Commission through our Bulletin.
The polling station VIDEFs must be retained for 10 years, in an anonymised format. To achieve this, you must ensure that any related VIDEF notes sheets are destroyed, or that you have removed any elector details recorded on the VIDEF for the purpose of capturing any of the required data.
Additionally you may get requests for the release of data about the operation of voter ID. To manage expectations, you should make it clear in advance of polling day what information you intend to release, when and how.
To help to address such requests, you should also plan to make available headline data for the constituency. This should include the following two figures:
- The number of polling station electors who applied for, but were not issued with, a ballot paper (calculated as the total of data recorded in section 3a on the VIDEFs); and
- The number of polling station electors who were not issued with a ballot paper and who later returned with accepted ID and were issued with a ballot paper (calculated as the total of data recorded in section 3b on the VIDEFs)
These figures do not form part of the collated information that must not be published or otherwise shared. This is because they do not identify the individual categories of information set out in the table above and have not been separated into the two groups.
You should ensure that this data is presented clearly and with appropriate contextual information. This should include the total number of electors who were eligible to vote in person at polling stations, and the number of voters who were issued with ballot papers at polling stations.
Responding in good time to reasonable requests for information that is not protected from disclosure should help to support public and stakeholder confidence in the delivery of the election and in your role as RO and/or ERO.
Refusing to provide information that is not protected from disclosure may give the impression that the process isn’t transparent, particularly if other ROs or EROs are making the same information available.
A consistent approach to which data is provided may help to reduce the impact of large numbers of conflicting requests and may also minimise the risk of pressure on individual ROs/EROs to release inaccurate or unrepresentative data.
Other Polls – Data collection and disclosure
At other polls, such as by-elections or local government polls, the RO may ask POs to collect the VIDEF data.
In this instance, as it is not a legal requirement to collect this information at these polls, there are not the same restrictions on the publication of data.
If you receive requests to disclose data from such polls, you should consider how to respond to the request for information:
You should ensure:
- that the data collected is anonymised as soon as practicable (for example, by destroying any related notes sheets or by removing any elector details recorded for the purpose of capturing any of the required data) to ensure that no personal data is released
- you do not release any information that can only be provided to the Secretary of State or the Electoral Commission
- you do not release information recorded on the Ballot Paper Refusal List that must be sealed and can only be disclosed by order of a court or in response to a request by an elector or proxy who was refused a ballot paper
- that any data you make available is accurate and has been appropriately quality assured (e.g. checking that the data does not include any obvious errors, and that no information is missing)
- that any data you make available is presented clearly and with appropriate contextual information, so that it is less likely to be misinterpreted or inadvertently misrepresent events on polling day.
You should avoid sharing information that has been recorded by greeters in polling stations as it unlikely to give an accurate representation of the experience of voters and may be misleading.
You should also ensure that the relevant privacy notice makes clear that personal data might be processed for this purpose, although no personal identifying data will be published.