Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what estimate he has made of the number of eligible people not on the electoral register in (a) England and (b) Bolton West constituency since 2010?

Information regarding the total number of unregistered people of voting age is not held by the Government. Only totals for the number of registered electors are held, and these can be accessed through the Office For National Statistics website. It should be noted, however, that registration levels have increased at every General Election since 2005, and the register used for the 2017 General Election was the largest in our history, standing at 46.9 million entries. This is undoubtedly due, in large part, to the introduction of the Government’s Register to Vote website, which has delivered great benefits to electors, making registering to vote simpler and more accessible than ever before. It is the Government’s intention to build on this success by publishing a Democratic Engagement Plan in December, which will have the ambition of making the General Election in 2022 the most inclusive to date.