Running electoral registration - Scotland

You may make a determination that a person’s entitlement to be registered has ceased without carrying out a review where if you receive information which supports this from at least two sources.1 However, even where you are in receipt of two sources of information which are consistent, you should nevertheless still be satisfied that a person is not entitled to be registered before you make a determination. 

If you are in doubt as to whether a person’s entitlement to remain registered has ceased, you still have the option of obtaining additional information, or carrying out a review, before making your determination. 

The sources of information that you use should be robust and you should maintain a clear audit trail of the steps taken as part of the deletions process.

Acceptable sources could include:

• a response to a canvass communication
• information from another resident at the address, notifying you that the elector is no longer resident 
• information from someone else connected with the address, such as a landlord, notifying you that the elector is no longer resident
• an invitation to register being returned as undeliverable/return to sender/not at this address

Such information would count as one source of information. If this is supported by local data, such as the individual being removed from the council tax account at that address, then that would be information from a second source which could support a determination that the elector is no longer resident.

If you have been provided with information from a source other than the elector themselves you can attempt to contact the elector directly including by phone, email or post to make enquiries. 

A lack of response to an attempt to make contact with the elector, such as a letter that is returned as undeliverable or indicating that the elector is no longer resident could be such a source of information. 

The information on which a decision to delete an entry without a review is based must be from different sources. For example, two pieces of mail returned as undeliverable are unlikely to be information from two sources. In this case information from a different source would also be required before a determination could be made.

Information arising from the canvass could include a name crossed off/marked as no longer resident in a response to a canvass communication where the elector is not marked as deceased, or a canvass communication sent by post being returned as undeliverable/return to sender/not at this address. In these cases, you would have evidence from one source and information from a second source would also be required before a determination to delete the elector could be made. 

You should take steps to establish whether there is information from other sources which could support a deletion. This could include checking local data such as council tax records, or attempting to make contact with the elector.
 
Further information on the records which you can inspect can be found in our planning for registration guidance.