Policy paper

Individual Electoral Registration: draft legislation

These proposals outline the government's plans to take forward the commitment in the Coalition Agreement to speed up the move to IER.

• From: Cabinet Office
• Published: 30 June 2011

This was published under the 2010 to 2015 Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition government

Documents

Individual Electoral Registration – draft legislation

Ref: ISBN 9780101810821, Cm. 8108

PDF, 1.21 MB, 69 pages

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Data Matching Pilot Schemes – statutory instrument

PDF, 150 KB, 13 pages

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Individual Electoral Registration impact assessment

Ref: ISBN 9780101810920, Cm. 8109

PDF, 569 KB, 50 pages

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Details

On 30 June the government published plans to implement Individual Electoral Registration (IER). The draft legislation and White paper on Individual Electoral Registration (IER) set out in detail the proposed new system of registration. 

These proposals outline the government’s plans to take forward the commitment in the Coalition Agreement to speed up the move to IER and tackle electoral fraud. The current household registration system will be replaced by individual registration.  Every elector will have to register individually and provide identifying information which will be used to verify their entitlement to be included in the electoral register. Only once their application has been verified can a person be added to the register. This will help to restore trust in electoral system.

As part of the move to IER, the government is also committed to taking steps to improve the completeness of the register. In June, the government launched a series of data matching pilots to test how far comparing electoral registers against other public databases will allow eligible people missing from the register to be identified and asked if they would like to register. Based on the outcome of these pilots, a decision will be made on whether to roll this out more widely. The pilots were provided for in separate legislation and signed into law in June 2011.

The draft legislation is currently undergoing pre-legislative scrutiny and the plan is for the Bill to enter Parliament by the New Year.

We would like to thank members of the public and those organisations who have provided comments on government’s proposals for Individual Electoral Registration.  The consultation has now closed.  However, you can share your views on IER by emailing the Electoral Registration Transformation Programme on electoralregistration@cabinet-office.gsi.gov.uk

See draft secondary legislation here.

Published 30 June 2011