Question
To ask the Deputy Prime Minister, for what reasons no legal action has been taken against electoral registration officers who have repeatedly failed to conduct door-to-door canvassing of electors who have not returned an electoral registration form.
The Electoral Commission’s recent assessments of Electoral Registration Officers’ (ERO) compliance with its performance standard for door-to-door canvassing show that this is very high and improving year by year.
As it is the duty of the Electoral Commission to monitor the performance of Electoral Registration Officers (EROs), the Government has no such plans to produce any guidance.
The Government has made clear that if an ERO fails to meet the statutory requirements Ministers can issue a Direction under section 52 of the Representation of the People Act 1983 that will require them to comply with their statutory obligations.