Chris Ruane – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Speaker’s Committee on the Electoral Commission

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Ruane on 2014-05-06.

To ask the hon. Member for South West Devon, representing the Speaker’s Committee on the Electoral Commission, how many and what proportion of electoral registration officers conducted data matching of local government databases for the purposes of the dry run for individual electoral registration; and if he will make a statement.

Mr Gary Streeter

The Electoral Commission informs me that 137 electoral registration officers (EROs) reported results of the local data matching activities they had undertaken following the confirmation dry run in 2013. However, there may have been other EROs that undertook the work but did not report on their findings.

A survey of EROs, issued by the Commission at the time of the dry run, found that 91% of the 316 respondents said that local data matching would be important in their area during the live run of confirmation. The Commission will report on the full results of the live run of confirmation later in 2014 and this will include the results of local data matching, where available.