Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Chloe Smith and Yvonne Fovargue

Tuesday 12th February 2013 Commons Chamber

[Miss Smith]

Like you, Mr Speaker, I am a great respecter of Parliament, so I suspect that I should not guarantee anything, but my intention is to bring forward proposals on which I look forward to working with my hon. Friend and all others who take an interest. As I said, the process ought to be transparent, robust and fair, and I look forward to making sure that it meets that quality mark.

[Yvonne Fovargue (Makerfield) (Lab)]

5. What assessment he has made of the most effective ways of ensuring the completeness and accuracy of the electoral register.

[The Parliamentary Secretary, Cabinet Office (Miss Chloe Smith)]

The Government are committed to doing all they can to maximise registration. We have published detailed research, which has informed our plans to use data-matching, targeted engagement with under-registered groups, and new technology to modernise the system as we go into individual electoral registration, to make it as convenient as possible for people to register to vote.

[Yvonne Fovargue]

Wigan has had great success in increasing the number of people registered to vote. However, there are still many more people recorded in the census than in the comparable electoral register. Does the Minister therefore agree that drawing the parliamentary boundaries on the basis of census data is a much fairer way of achieving equal constituencies?

[Miss Smith]

In short, the census data come out only once every 10 years, which is rather a drawback. There are a number of other differences as well, which suggests that the electoral register is a better source to use.