Asked by: Lord Greaves (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether the Freedom of Information Act 2000 applies to the names, addresses and other personal information, in whole or in part, that forms part of a petition that has been delivered to a public authority to which that Act applies.
Answered by Lord Bridges of Headley
The Freedom of Information Act 2000 applies to all information held by a public authority. However the Act contains an exemption that would protect the names, addresses and other personal information within petitions submitted to and held by public authorities.
Asked by: Lord Greaves (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what role the police played in the prevention of electoral fraud at the General Election in (1) areas identified as being at particular risk of fraud, and (2) other areas.
Answered by Lord Bridges of Headley
At elections in the UK, the police are responsible for ensuring that electors’ democratic rights are upheld. The police are also responsible for investigating all allegations of electoral fraud.
The previous Government made an additional £500,000 available to 17 local authorities identified as being at greater risk of electoral fraud and the majority of these worked with the police in some capacity. Initiatives included police analysis of data to identify potential issues and providing a greater police presence before and during the poll. Feedback from Returning Officers has been positive.
Asked by: Lord Greaves (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is the number of electors registered in each constituency on the new electoral registers; what is the change compared with the registers as first published in the previous year in (1) numbers, and (2) as a percentage change; and whether they are taking further action to increase the number of people registered before the General Election.
Answered by Lord Wallace of Saltaire - Liberal Democrat Lords Spokesperson (Cabinet Office)
We are only mid-way through the transition to Individual Electoral Registration (IER) and so the current electoral registers offer only an initial and partial snapshot of the registration landscape. Electoral statistics based on the last electoral registers published under the previous household system are available on the Office for National Statistics website:
ONS plans to publish statistics for England and Wales on 26 February based on the registers as at 1 December 2014 and on 16 April for the Scottish registers as at 2 March 2015.
The Government has provided funding of over £14 million between financial years 2013/14 and 2014/15 to support the costs of activities aimed at increasing the completeness and accuracy of the electoral register. We have also provided all Local Authorities and Valuation Joint Boards in Great Britain with a share of £30m resource funding, across this financial year and the previous financial year, to support them in making the transition to IER.