Running electoral registration - Wales

Where an elector has been identified through any automatic registration process and is potentially eligible to be registered in respect of UK Parliament elections, you must also send that elector an ITR. This must be sent as soon as practicable and within 28 days of the date you become aware of them.1

We recommend sending an ITR to any elector who may also be eligible to register for UK Parliament elections at the same time as you send out their notice of registration.

Benefits to sending both communications at the same time include:

• reduction of postage costs
• enabling the management of both processes concurrently to make best use of your resources
• enabling clearer messaging so reducing potential voter confusion

Where an elector has not responded to an ITR within 28 days you should send a reminder ITR. If at this point the elector has been registered under AVR this could be accompanied by a further notice explaining that they are only registered for the local government register but no response to the ITR has yet been received.

The exceptions to the requirement to send an ITR are where:

• an elector has applied to register themselves during the automatic registration window
• data identifies an elector as either:
  • a qualifying foreign citizen - these electors will be added to the register with an M marker and are ineligible to register for UK Parliament elections
  • the elector is aged 14 or 15 and not yet eligible to be added as an attainer in respect of the UK parliamentary register

As a result of sending an ITR you may find that you receive applications to register during the notification period. You should process these as normal and when you have determined their application, add that elector to the electoral register(s) with the relevant franchise appropriate for their nationality. For more information see our guidance on processing applications and amendments to the register.

You should ensure when processing additions to the register that you check for potential duplicate entries, or entries that are similar but not exactly the same as a result of local data including slightly different versions of names or inclusion or absence of middle names. You will need to conduct further enquiries if is it not clear whether they are different people.

You should also send ITRs to potential electors who have opted out of being automatically registered and to any potential electors you have identified where you do not have sufficient data to issue an automatic voter registration notice. For example, where you have identified a potential elector but only have one piece of data.