| Synopsis: |
In this report the Political and Constitutional Reform Committee welcomes the Government's decision to move to a system of individual electoral registration in 2014-15, to replace the existing outdated system of registration by household. The Committee raises a number of concerns about the Government's implementation plan. Firstly, levels of registration will fall, by an uncertain amount at first, and if this fall is uneven across the country, it will have a marked and potentially partisan effect on the parliamentary constituency boundaries to be used at the 2020 general election. This risk is enhanced by the proposal to make voter registration voluntary. The Committee recommends that it should initially be an offence to fail to complete a voter registration form, as is currently the case in Northern Ireland. A second concern is that the electoral registers used for the 2015 general election, and initial invitations to register individually, will contain significant inaccuracies. This is because of the Government's decision not to remove voters registered in 2013 from the rolls until after that general, combined with the decision not to hold a full household canvass in 2014.Thirdly, vulnerable electors may be disenfranchised by the Government's decision to require postal and proxy voters to register individually before the 2015 general election. The Committee also recommends the abolition of the edited register. The report also comments on other electoral reforms the Government is proposing, including to the timetable for parliamentary elections, and largely endorses them. |