Grahame Morris – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Grahame Morris on 2016-04-08.

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what the cost of supporting electoral registration by (a) local authorities and (b) other groups was in each of the last 10 years.

John Penrose

Since financial year 2012/13 the Cabinet Office has provided funding to local authorities and civil society organisations to support the implementation and delivery of Individual Electoral Registration. Prior to financial year 2010/11 electoral registration policy was under the remit of the Ministry of Justice. The Cabinet Office does not hold any relevant financial data prior to 2010.

Local Authorities are under a statutory obligation to provide Electoral Registration Officers with funding and resources to support electoral registration more generally. Local Authorities are funded from a block grant that is allocated by the Department for Communities and Local Government.

The table below notes the funding provided by the Cabinet Office to local authorities and other groups and organisations in Great Britain. This includes core funding to support local authorites in the transition to IER, and the upgrade of hardware, such as printers, to support the new A3 registration forms .The figures also include funding that was allocated to local authorities and other groups to support efforts to increase levels of registration between financial years 2010/11 and 2015/16.