Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what proportion of people who registered to vote by means of the online registration service did so without providing a national insurance number in (a) 2014, (b) 2015, (c) 2016, (d) 2017 and (e) 2018.

The online registration service is very popular and enjoys consistently high user satisfaction. The overwhelming majority of people successfully use the service and are able to provide a National Insurance number when doing so. The figures are as follows:

As can be seen, over time the number of applications without a National Insurance number has been falling from already very low levels. This suggests that communications activity making it clear that having a National Insurance number to hand makes online applications easier has had an effect.

These figures also clearly justify the use of National Insurance numbers as the primary means of verifying the identity of applications received through the online system.