Draft Representation of the People (Northern Ireland) (Amendment) Regulations 2025
(2 days, 20 hours ago)
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The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Northern Ireland (Fleur Anderson)
I beg to move,
That the Committee has considered the draft Representation of the People (Northern Ireland) (Amendment) Regulations 2025.
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mr Mundell. As we set out in our manifesto, this Government are committed to strengthening and encouraging participation in our democracy. The draft regulations will help to achieve that by ensuring that those who remain eligible to be registered, but who did not respond to the last electoral canvass, can remain registered while attempts are made to contact them. I thank the Electoral Commission and the chief electoral officer for Northern Ireland for their support in the design of the retention framework that is set out in the draft regulations.
Unlike the process in Great Britain, there is no annual canvass in Northern Ireland. Instead, the CEO is required to conduct a canvass at least every 10 years; the last was held in 2021. During the canvass, all eligible individuals must respond by completing a full new application form; otherwise, they risk removal from the register. The current law provides that individuals who do not respond to a canvass can be retained for up to three years if the CEO continues to be satisfied of their eligibility; such individuals are called retained electors. The CEO is able to assess eligibility by cross-checking the register with local and Government data.
Following the 2021 canvass, there are 87,000 retained electors on the register, or approximately 6% of the electorate in Northern Ireland. As that canvass took place three years ago, under the existing provisions they would all be removed from the register next month. That is why it is really important that we are all here today. The CEO’s assessment is that almost all of these retained electors remain eligible.
The draft regulations would correct the position by extending the retention period from three to six years. Given that three years have already elapsed since the 2021 canvass, the current retained cohort will start the new framework in year four of the 10-year cycle and will be subject to the provisions relating to years four to six of the scheme. Electors retained on the register following any subsequent canvass, including the one scheduled for 2030, will be subject to the steps for years one to six.
Crucially, the new provisions stipulate the required minimum engagements by the CEO in each retention year to encourage re-registration, including an annual audit of retained electors and a framework of correspondence. The provisions are designed to prevent the loss of retained electors, which would have a negative impact on the quality of the electoral register in Northern Ireland and would potentially disenfranchise electors.
The CEO is clear that he has full confidence in the quality of the data available, allowing him confidence in retention and removals where they are warranted. Owing to additional data and improvements in data science, the data available is of a much higher quality than when the current law was conceived.
I will explain a little more about the details of the framework. The draft regulations will introduce a new residence audit that the CEO will be required to conduct annually to check residence details of retained electors against the external data available. Where the audit raises a question as to the elector’s residence, a removal warning notice must be sent. If the elector does not re-register within 28 days of the notice, they will be removed from the register.
In years one to three following the canvass, if the CEO remains satisfied as a result of the audit that the elector remains eligible to be on the register, no further action will be taken. However, in years four to five of the electoral cycle, which is where we are now, if the CEO is satisfied that retained electors remain resident, they will be sent a household notice showing which electors must re-register or risk removal. They will not, at that stage, be removed, but the primary legislation is clear that non-respondents may not be retained indefinitely. Consequently, in the sixth and final year, all remaining retained electors will be sent up to three notices informing them that they will be removed if they do not re-register. If they fail to respond, they will then be removed.
The purpose of the framework is to ensure that reasonable efforts are made to prevent the loss of eligible electors from the register. As the last canvass was held in 2021, only those provisions in the regulations concerning years four to six will apply to the current retained electors. I hope that the Committee agrees that these changes will encourage and secure participation in the democratic process in Northern Ireland.
Alex Burghart (Brentwood and Ongar) (Con)
May I welcome you to your place, Mr Mundell, and wish you and all hon. Members a happy new year? The Opposition do not intend to oppose the draft regulations, but we have some reasonably significant questions and I am interested to hear what the Minister has to say.
Some 87,000 voters are about to fall off the register. I believe that to be an unusually high number. What do we think is the cause? Perhaps we are dealing with the symptoms rather than the cause of the problem, so it would be useful to know what the Government think has led such circumstances to arise.
The Committee could do with some reassurance about the reliability of the local and Government data used in this process. I have read and understood the explanatory memorandum, but we could do with a little more detail so that we know that the data is accurate.
It would be helpful to know whether the Government have considered harmonising the good system that we have in Great Britain with the one in Northern Ireland. We have a very reliable system of annual canvasses here. I understand why there was thought to be a need to differentiate Northern Ireland when the Representation of the People Act was passed in 1983, but a lot has moved on since then. Would it not be better for the whole country if one system were used in all four of the home nations?
My last question is slightly outside the Minister’s brief, so I will understand if she or one of her colleagues answers in writing. There is a long tradition in Northern Ireland of voter ID to accompany registration. There have been some rumours in the press recently that the Government are considering doing away with voter ID in the UK. Would that cover just GB, or would it also cover Northern Ireland? When can we hope for some clarity on the Government’s position?
Robin Swann (South Antrim) (UUP)
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Mundell. I have a couple of queries for the Minister. The chief electoral officer says that 87,700 retained electors are due to be removed on 1 February. The explanatory memorandum suggests that almost all of them live at the address on the register and
“are therefore eligible to be registered to vote at this address.”
That would suggest that those 87,700 electors are real, live people who are able and eligible to vote in Northern Ireland, so I assume that they had the opportunity to do so in the general election only six months ago. In my opinion, that is an exceptionally high number. I wonder whether the Government, although perhaps not at this stage, could ask the chief electoral officer to provide a breakdown of those 87,700 retained electors by constituency so that we can see whether there is any trend or specific registration issue in Northern Ireland of which we need to be aware.
I turn to a more specific question. Proposed new regulation 46C of the Representation of the People (Northern Ireland) Regulations 2008, which is entitled “Retained register entries: residence audit”, provides an opportunity to
“conduct a residence audit in respect of any retained elector”.
That indicates that there will be opportunities to do an individual residence audit. Is that the intention of the draft regulations? If so, who would instigate such an audit of an individual’s residence to see whether a retained elector is eligible to vote before a removal warning is issued? Could a residence audit be instigated only by the chief electoral officer and his staff, or could a member of the general public query the eligibility of an elector or their residence at an address?
Further to the point that the shadow Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, the hon. Member for Brentwood and Ongar, made about voter ID, may I encourage the Government to look at how voter ID is used in Northern Ireland? Perhaps I might encourage them to extend that approach to the rest of the United Kingdom.
Fleur Anderson
I thank the hon. Members for Brentwood and Ongar and for South Antrim for raising those questions. The draft regulations are an important piece of legislation and it is important to get them right.
The number of retained electors sounds very high, but given the total electorate of 1.36 million, some 87,000 is not an unusually high number in the history of elections in Northern Ireland. It is increasingly difficult to get people to fill out forms, but we hope that by enabling electors to be retained for another three years, the draft regulations—along with a concerted effort of correspondence and checking—will increase the number. The draft regulations set out how the CEO will try to contact non-respondents. The CEO does not consider that the number is unusually high or that it represents a particular spike. The numbers who are not on the electoral roll, but could potentially be on it, are in line with the standard across the United Kingdom.
The CEO has made assurances about the reliability of the data, which is achieved through cross-checking it with other systems. If, as a result of cross-checking with other Government data, someone is found to have moved, they will be asked to be removed from the system. Those who are retained are on the system in another area of Government data, so the reliability of data can be assured.
The harmonising of the system in Great Britain is a whole other issue, but making the draft regulations will give the Government an extra three years to consider what changes could be made and to look again at the issue. We will be looking at other ways in which to increase democratic participation; it will be a subject of discussion for the next three years, but the draft regulations will enable exactly that. There is a different history in Northern Ireland, which is why there are different systems, so a direct harmonisation is not as easy as it sounds, but it needs to be discussed.
The shadow Secretary of State asked about using voter ID. I do not know about speculation in the press, but I can ask the relevant Minister to get back to him on the question of when it will be discussed. I know that the Government are committed to extending the franchise to 16 and 17-year-olds; that will be on the table for the next few years and it will be discussed.
In answer to a question asked by the hon. Member for South Antrim, the CEO has confidence, but I will ask for a breakdown of the numbers by constituency. It will be interesting for hon. Members and others to see whether there are differences, discrepancies or reasons why there are fewer retained electors in certain constituencies.
Cross-checking is done with other data. Can an individual query the register? That is a system for the CEO to look at. The draft regulations will put the method of using cross-checking every year into legislation, but an individual querying whether another person should be on the electoral register is a different matter entirely.
I thank both hon. Members for their questions and thank all hon. Members present, as well as my Northern Ireland Office officials and the Clerks, for being here so that we could consider the draft regulations, enabling us to ensure that we strengthen the electoral system by doing all we can to encourage engagement in democracy. Confidence that the system works for us all is essential. I am pleased to commend the draft regulations to the Committee.
Question put and agreed to.