Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what discussions he has had with the Secretary of State for Education on measures to (a) encourage and (b) require education institutions to adopt a model of integrated voter registration with academic enrolment.

The Government supported a successful project at the University of Sheffield to integrate electoral registration with student enrolment. We intend to publish the outcomes of this project in due course. While we do not support mandating universities to implement the system we intend to encourage wider take up, on a voluntary basis, by universities and colleges with the appetite and technical infrastructure to adopt the model. We also intend to gather evidence on the extent to which universities have integrated or plan to integrate electoral registration with student enrolment.

I have discussed this issue with the Minister of State for Universities, Science, Research and Innovation and we will continue to work together to provide support to improve student electoral registration.