Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what proportion of service personnel are (a) registered to vote and (b) registered to vote by post or proxy.

The Department takes a number of steps each year, with assistance from the Electoral Commission, to inform Service personnel of the arrangements for electoral registration. The annual information campaign encouraging Service personnel and their families to register to vote was launched on 1 February 2016, in conjunction with the National Voter Registration Drive. We will issue an updated, separate instruction for the EU Referendum and conduct further internal communications to once again encourage Service personnel to register to vote.

Registration is a personal matter and personnel are free to choose whether and, how they register to vote. Our information campaign encourages personnel to consider applying to vote by proxy if they are serving in a location where postal services may be difficult.

The number of Service personnel who are registered to vote was published in the 2015 Armed Forces Continuous Attitude Survey (AFCAS) Annex B, Table B22.1-3, available on the gov.uk website at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/428636/20150520_afcas_15_annex_b_ref_tables.pdf

The Department does not hold information on how personnel choose to cast their vote, be that in person, by post, or by proxy.