Stephen Timms – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Timms on 2015-10-16.

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps he is taking to increase voter registration among students.

John Penrose

The move to Individual Electoral Registration has made registration more convenient for students, who can now register online in as little as three minutes on a tablet, smart-phone or PC. Ahead of the elections on 7 May, £530,000 was allocated to organisations that work to encourage student electoral registration, including £380,000 to the National Union of Students. In 2013, the Cabinet Office established the Student Forum, bringing together key organisations representing students and universities, as well as Electoral Registration Officers with significant student populations to foster closer working relationships. We have also worked with Sheffield University and the local Electoral Registration Officer to pilot digital integration of student enrolment with electoral registration and I am keen that we learn from this work.

I am engaged in detailed discussions with a range of Electoral Registration Officers on how to increase registration rates for hard-to-reach groups, including students, and look forward to announcing further details on this soon.