Policy paper

Improving voter registration

Published 12 February 2026

Representation of the People Bill 2026: Improving voter registration

Everyone who is entitled to vote should be able, supported and encouraged to do so.

Our ambition is to transform our registration practices, harnessing public sector data and moving towards an automated system so electors can easily and simply be correctly registered to vote. This will mean making improvements to data sharing and integration of digital services, while also testing innovative approaches to registration before permanently implementing those changes that prove successful.

Summary of the measures in the Bill

Giving EROs the data they need

Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) currently have powers to access data to enable them to discharge their duty to maintain a complete and accurate register. However, in some cases, in practice they face barriers in getting access to the data they need because local authorities interpret the extent of access they can provide in different ways. The Representation of the People Bill 2026 amends an existing power to clarify the rights of EROs to access local authority data to support electoral registration processes.

There is also a new power to enable better sharing of data from government departments and other bodies. This will provide the basis for a range of more automated processes, which will help EROs to identify and support eligible people who are missing from the register or registered incorrectly. There are opportunities to make better use of citizen data from across the public sector, for example using data from other government services to register eligible electors without making an application.

Additional automated processes will be enabled by legislation separate to the Bill, including better integration with other government services and exploration of GOV.UK One Login.

Testing new ways to register people to vote and making registration simpler and more automated

The Bill will provide a legal power to run pilots on electoral registration. This is intended to provide a route to test novel approaches to registration now and in the future. Initially, we plan to test a process where an eligible person can be added to the register without making an application, and update changes to an existing entry on a register without an application. For example, if a registration officer becomes aware that a person has updated their address details with several other local authority services, such as council tax, they may investigate the case and, once satisfied the person has genuinely moved, update the registration entry accordingly.

The Bill also provides for registration and alteration without application to be brought in permanently, if desired.

These provisions include essential safeguards so anyone being registered in this way understands the process and can opt-out and choose to register via other existing routes, including anonymous registration, if they need to.

Putting people in control of the open register

In support of both improvements to voter registration and the expansion of the franchise to younger voters, this Bill will end the presumption that electors will be added to the open register when they register to vote, unless they choose to opt out. Instead, we will ask applicants whether they wish to opt in to the open register.

We consider the opt in arrangement is a more effective form of consent than the existing opt out process. This aligns with guidance from the Information Commissioner’s Office.

Additionally, as we move towards more automated forms of registration, which may not require applicants to make specific applications to register to vote, this change will make sure nobody’s details will appear on the open register without their affirmative consent.