Running electoral registration - Wales

This section contains guidance on the actions you should take as Electoral Registration Officer (ERO) to comply with your duty to take steps as necessary to identify the names and addresses of persons not registered as local government electors and register these eligible electors without applications.1

The duty applies if:2

• you are aware of a person’s name and address
• that person is not registered in the local government electoral register for your area
• you are satisfied that they are entitled to be registered

The duties are as a result of the changes made to the Representation of the People Act 1983 and The Representation of the People (England and Wales) Regulations 2001 by the Elections and Elected Bodies (Wales) Act 2024 (sections 3 and 4) and The Representation of the People (Electoral Registration without Applications) (Electoral Reform) (Wales) Regulations 2026.3

The legislation means that EROs in Wales must4

• as a minimum undertake a data matching exercise to identify unregistered electors at least once a year
• send a notice of registration to those unregistered electors identified, giving them a 28-day notification period in which they can opt out of the automatic registration for prescribed reasons
• add people who have not opted out to the local government register with a J marker, once the 28-day notification period has concluded

To meet the requirements, the data matching process must start before the end of each calendar year.