Cabinet Office Questions: Electoral Register
Andrew Bridgen questions the Government over plans to address the problem of people who deliberately avoid appearing on the electoral register because they are involved in benefit fraud.
Andrew Bridgen (North West Leicestershire) (Con): What recent assessment he has made of the accuracy of the electoral register. [27059]
The Parliamentary Secretary, Cabinet Office (Mr Mark Harper): The Government have not made such an assessment, but the Electoral Commission found in its March 2010 report "The completeness and accuracy of electoral registers in Great Britain" that
It is clear, however, that more can be done to support accuracy. To that end, I have announced that the Government will speed up the implementation of individual voter registration from 2014, which will ensure that only those entitled to vote get on the register, bringing greater protection against electoral fraud.
Andrew Bridgen: Does the Minister agree that some individuals deliberately keep themselves off the register because they are partaking in or are aiding and abetting benefit fraud? How does he think we should address that important issue?
Mr Harper: One of the things that we will do on individual registration is ensure that people will have to register with a signature and their date of birth and national insurance number details. Those will be checked against Department for Work and Pensions records to ensure that the voting record database is accurate. One of the things that we will be doing when we trial data-matching next year is looking to see what other benefits can be obtained from those public sector databases.
