Question

To ask the Deputy Prime Minister, what estimate he has made of the number of people on the electoral roll (a) before and (b) after the switch to individual electoral registration.

We are only mid-way through the transition to Individual Electoral Registration and so the current electoral registers offer only a partial snapshot of the registration landscape.

Electoral statistics based on the last electoral registers published under the previous system are available on the Office for National Statistics (ONS) website:

http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/pop-estimate/electoral-statistics-for-uk/2013/stb---2013-electoral-statistics.html

ONS plans to publish statistics for England and Wales on 26 February based on the registers as at 1 December 2014 and on 16 April for the Scottish registers as at 2 March 2015.