Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps he is taking to ensure that people who are not eligible to vote in the EU referendum and who have received ballot papers in error are not able to use those ballot papers.

The EU referendum will be overseen by the Chief Counting Officer, chair of the independent Electoral Commission, who is responsible for making sure the referendum is held in accordance with the legislation governing the conduct of the poll. The Electoral Commission has recently issued a statement setting out the actions that have been taken to address an issue with elections software used by a number of local authorities in England and Wales. They will ensure that any postal votes which have been issued to electors who are not eligible to vote in the referendum will be cancelled and none of these electors will be shown as eligable on the electoral register to be used at polling stations on the 23rd June.