Elections: Proof of Identity

(asked on 11th January 2022) - View Source

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, with reference to the Written Ministerial Statement of 6 January 2022, HCWS525 on Protecting the Integrity of our Elections, what additional sources of data the issuing authority will be required to check before issuing a voter card.


Answered by
Kemi Badenoch Portrait
Kemi Badenoch
President of the Board of Trade
This question was answered on 14th January 2022

Electoral Registration Officers will have the power to determine an application and issue Voter Cards. Information relating to applications for Voter Cards and issued Voter Cards will be held by Electoral Registration Officers at the local authority level.

The process for confirming the identity of an applicant for a Voter Card will be set out in secondary legislation, and will include a range of data sources that an Electoral Registration Officer may choose to check an application against, to ensure an inclusive process. The Government intends to allow for online applications to be made via a centralised website, and applications made in this way may be checked automatically against data sources held by central government - for example checking a national insurance number. The results of any such checks would be passed on to the relevant Electoral Registration Officer, for them to consider while making their decision.

The Government has no plans for Voter Cards to have the capacity to hold biometric or electronic data. As set out in the Government’s recent policy statement ‘Protecting the integrity of our elections: Voter identification at polling stations and the new Voter Card”, published on 6 January 2022, Voter Cards will be designed solely for the purpose of voting at polling stations. They will intentionally not include information that is not necessary for that purpose - for example they will not show a date of birth.

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