Asked by: Lord Tyler (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what was the total number of eligible electors on the register, resident outside the UK, for the EU referendum on 23 June 2016; and what proportion of them voted.
Answered by Lord Young of Cookham
The Government does not hold central records of the total number of eligible electors on the register who reside outside of the UK, where overseas they reside, and the proportion of them who voted.
The Electoral Commission has produced reports into the administration of the 2017 and 2015 General Election and the 2016 EU referendum. The reports contain information on the number of overseas electors but does not state where they reside. The reports can be found here: https://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/our-work/publications/election-and-referendum-reports
Asked by: Lord Tyler (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what was the total number of eligible electors on the register, resident in other EU Member States, for the May 2015 General Election; and what proportion of them voted.
Answered by Lord Young of Cookham
The Government does not hold central records of the total number of eligible electors on the register who reside outside of the UK, where overseas they reside, and the proportion of them who voted.
The Electoral Commission has produced reports into the administration of the 2017 and 2015 General Election and the 2016 EU referendum. The reports contain information on the number of overseas electors but does not state where they reside. The reports can be found here: https://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/our-work/publications/election-and-referendum-reports
Asked by: Lord Tyler (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what was the total number of eligible electors on the register, resident outside the UK, for the May 2015 General Election; and what proportion of them voted.
Answered by Lord Young of Cookham
The Government does not hold central records of the total number of eligible electors on the register who reside outside of the UK, where overseas they reside, and the proportion of them who voted.
The Electoral Commission has produced reports into the administration of the 2017 and 2015 General Election and the 2016 EU referendum. The reports contain information on the number of overseas electors but does not state where they reside. The reports can be found here: https://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/our-work/publications/election-and-referendum-reports
Asked by: Lord Tyler (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what consideration they have given to reallocating public funds presently allocated to (1) candidate and party election addresses, and (2) government advertising, to enable a cost-neutral package of reform of the rules on political party finance, including a cap on donations.
Answered by Lord Bridges of Headley
The Government is open to dialogue on practical measures to reform the funding of political parties. This can only be achieved by cross party discussions from the political parties themselves.
Asked by: Lord Tyler (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the remarks by Lord Wallace of Tankerness on 13 January (HL Deb, cols 19–20), what progress they have made in fulfilling their commitments to make further improvements to the accessibility of government transparency information by (1) ensuring greater co-ordination of the publication of data sets so that all returns within a quarter can be found on one page, (2) improving the access to and presentation of those data, including by improving the consistency of presentation and titling, (3) ensuring greater consistency in the content of departmental reporting, particularly in including the subject of meetings, and (4) ensuring that the gov.uk transparency pages contain a link to the statutory register of lobbyists so that the data can be easily cross-referenced.
Answered by Lord Wallace of Saltaire - Liberal Democrat Lords Spokesperson (Cabinet Office)
Cabinet Office regularly monitors adherence to departmental open data commitments, as well as timeliness of their publication across government. We are making regular efforts to improve access to and presentation of the data, including by improving the consistency of presentation and titling.
Steps have already been taken to improve the consistency of Ministers’, Senior Officials’ and Special Advisers’ transparency returns and technical improvements to the presentation of this data will be introduced for information published in 2015. The recently established independent Office of the Registrar of Consultant Lobbyists now has a web presence on gov.uk and the Government will ensure that the transparency pages of gov.uk provide a link to the statutory register once launched.
Asked by: Lord Tyler (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government since the introduction of individual electoral registration how many people have attempted to register to vote but failed to do so because they were unable to provide their National Insurance number; and how many of those were online applicants.
Answered by Lord Wallace of Saltaire - Liberal Democrat Lords Spokesperson (Cabinet Office)
Since the introduction of Individual Electoral Registration (IER) in England and Wales on 10 June and 19 September in Scotland, only 1% of all applications submitted to register to vote via the IER digital service have not been able to provide their personal identifiers (National Insurance Number or Date of Birth).
The registration process also allows for registrations to be made where it is not possible for an applicant to supply their National Insurance Number. Those unable to provide these personal identifiers can apply through an exceptions process where they will be asked by their Electoral Registration Officer (ERO) to provide documentary evidence to confirm their identity such as a passport or driving license. EROs have been trained to support electors through this process if necessary.
Asked by: Lord Tyler (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they are making preparations to publish data on how many electors on the new electoral register due to be published in December are registered by virtue of (1) filling in a form online, (2) filling in a paper form, (3) responding to a doorstep canvass, (4) confirmation through the data-matching process, and (5) carry-over from the household electoral registration system.
Answered by Lord Wallace of Saltaire - Liberal Democrat Lords Spokesperson (Cabinet Office)
The Electoral Commission (EC) will assess progress in the transition to Individual Electoral Registration in England and Wales based on the Electoral Register as of 1 December 2014 and plans to publish their evaluation in February 2015. The Office for National Statistics will also publish statistics on the December register.
Scotland will publish their registers in March and the EC plans to publish a separate assessment of these in April 2015.
The Government intends to make their own assessment of the transition. An assessment of the confirmation live run in England and Wales was published in October 2014 and can be found here:
Asked by: Lord Tyler (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they will include information about online electoral registration with notifications and reminders of National Insurance numbers.
Answered by Lord Wallace of Saltaire - Liberal Democrat Lords Spokesperson (Cabinet Office)
Users are reminded they will need their National Insurance Number before they start the application.
Cabinet Office along with HM Revenue and Customs will explore the potential mutual benefits of collaboration in regards to the inclusion of electoral registration information in National Insurance Number reminder letters.
The Government is looking at all options to exploit the full potential of online registration in increasing the completeness and accuracy of the register.
Asked by: Lord Tyler (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what action they are taking to improve electoral registration rates among those attaining the age of 18.
Answered by Lord Wallace of Saltaire - Liberal Democrat Lords Spokesperson (Cabinet Office)
Electoral registration is the responsibility of local Electoral Registration Officers (EROs), supported by the Electoral Commission.
To support the transition to Individual Electoral Registration, the Government has invested £4.2 million in 2013/14 shared across every ERO in Great Britain and 5 national organisations to support the costs of activities aimed at increasing the rate of voter registration.
The Government has also introduced online registration in Great Britain. As of midnight 28 October, 478,177 16-24 year olds had registered online.
The Government has made freely available the Rock Enrol! resource aimed at engaging young people in democracy. This is free to download on GOV.UK, Guardian Teach and on the Times Educational Supplement website.