62.This section replaces section 9(6) of the 1983 Act with a new section 9A, to expand upon the statement of registration officers’ duties in relation to the maintenance of the registers for which they are responsible. Subsection (2) of the new section sets out a non-exhaustive list of the steps that must be taken to identify persons eligible for registration as electors. Subsection (3) provides a power for the Secretary of State to add to the list of steps to be taken.
63.Subsection (1) adds new sections 9B and 9C into the 1983 Act. Section 9B provides the possibility of anonymous registration of electors in certain circumstances. If a person is eligible for registration, but fears that his safety or that of another person resident in the same household would be at risk if he were identifiable from the electoral registers, he may apply for anonymous registration. Section 9C provides for the removal of an anonymous entry after 12 months.
64.Section 9B(1) sets out the requirements for seeking anonymous registration. The person must make a specific application, it will not be possible to apply on the canvass form. Along with the prescribed information required for registration as a parliamentary and local government elector, the person has to provide further information specifically relevant to their application for an anonymous entry. They must make a declaration and provide evidence in support of their application.
65.Section 9B(2) specifies that an ERO, when determining an application for an anonymous entry must determine whether the safety test is satisfied.
66.Section 9B(3) provides that where an application for anonymity is granted, the details which will appear on the register will be only their electoral number and letters prescribed in regulations which indicate the elections for which, and the manner by which, the person can vote.
67.Section 9B(6) sets out that where an application for an anonymous entry is refused, no new entry in the register should be made at all.
68.Section 9B(7) provides that where the person who unsuccessfully applied for anonymity was already on the current electoral register, that entry is not to be removed. A person may apply again for registration despite the rejection of their application for anonymity.
69.Section 9B(10) specifies the safety test to be applied in the determination of an application for anonymous registration. The test will be satisfied where the safety of the applicant for an anonymous entry or that of any other person of the same household would be at risk if the register contains the name of the applicant or his qualifying address.
70.Section 9C(1) provides that a person’s anonymous entry terminates after 12 months. It is not automatically renewable. It will terminate if the declaration made for the purposes of seeking an anonymous entry is cancelled earlier (e.g. at the elector’s request, or if he moves out of the constituency).
71.Section 9C(3)provides that upon the termination of an anonymous entry, a registration officer has to remove it from the register unless a further application for an anonymous entry is granted.
72.Subsections (1) and (2) amend section 13B of the 1983 Act, which concerns alterations to the electoral registers during a period when an election is pending. These subsections will move the deadline for applying for registration closer to the day of poll. A person will be entitled to vote in an election if their registration has taken effect by the fifth day before polling day. Registration cannot take effect until the registration officer has determined entitlement and issued a notice amending the register. The five day period for public objections, currently provided for in secondary legislation, will mean that the final date for applying to be registered will be eleven days prior to polling day.
73.Subsection (3) amends section 13B further to deal with circumstances where the registration officer has determined that an amendment to his registers is needed to add or remove a person’s entry in the register, or to give effect to a court ruling, or to correct a clerical error. If the section 13B timescales for those amendments taking effect would be later than the fifth day before the poll, then the amendments to section 13B(2) have the effect of bringing forward the date those amendments take effect, to what is called in section 13B, “the appropriate publication date”, i.e. the sixth or the fifth day before the poll.
74.Subsection (4) inserts (3A) to (3E) into section 13B of the 1983 Act. Whereas the amendment made by the substituted section 13B(2) limits effective amendments to those made no later than the fifth day before the poll, there are two circumstances in which amendments can be made and take effect up to and including a prescribed time of day on polling day itself. Currently, such alterations may only be made up to the fifth day before the day of poll.
75.These circumstances, covered by the inserted section 13B(3A) and (3C), are where there has been a court ruling, or a clerical error has been corrected. The inserted section 13B(3B) deals with the court ruling; the inserted section 13B(3D) deals with the clerical errors. These subsections direct the registration officer to issue the required notice that amends the register and specifies that the notice takes effect as from the beginning of the day on which it was issued.
76.Subsection (4) inserts a new subsection 13B(3E). Clerical errors can only be corrected during pending elections if the elector has drawn them to the attention of the registration officer in the prescribed time and manner.
77.This section empowers an ERO to remove an elector’s name from his register if it becomes apparent, after the process of registration has been completed, that the elector should not have been registered. At present, objections to a person’s registration can only be raised before the registration takes effect and a registration officer’s powers to remove an erroneous or obsolete entry are limited. The section widens the powers of an ERO to remove a person’s entry from the register.
78.The section similarly provides for registration officers to be able to terminate the registration of electors whose registration is dependent upon special declaration based procedures, rather than the canvass or rolling registration applications. Thus, similar provision is made in relation to:
patients in mental hospitals: subsection (1) amending section 7 of the 1983 Act;
persons remanded in custody: subsection (2) amending section 7A of the 1983 Act;
persons, such as homeless persons, registered by declaration of local connection: subsection (3) amending section 7C of the 1983 Act;
persons registered as service voters: subsection (7) amending section 15(2) of the 1983 Act; and
persons registered as overseas electors: subsection (9) amends section 2 of the Representation of the People Act 1985.
79.Subsection (4) amends section 10A of the 1983 Act (maintenance of registers: registration of electors) by adding a new subsection (3A). This will establish that objections to another person’s registration, to which 10A(3) of the 1983 Act applies, may be made both before and after that person’s registration.
80.Subsection (5)(b) replaces existing section 10A(5)(b) of the 1983 Act. This gives the ERO the power to remove an elector from the register if the ERO determines that the elector is no longer resident, or for other reasons, has ceased to satisfy the conditions of entitlement to be registered. This power to remove will also apply in relation to persons registered as anonymous electors.
81.Subsection (6) adds a new section 10A(5B) of the 1983 Act to give the EROs the power to obtain information via house to house inquiries for the purposes of determining whether a person has ceased to be resident or to satisfy the conditions of entitlement to be registered.
82.Subsection (8) amends section 56 (registration appeals) by adding a new subsection (1)(aa). This clarifies that the right of appeal to a county court from the decision of a registration officer also applies where the result of an objection made after registration is that the person ceases to be registered on the electoral register.
83.Section 13 amends sections 15 and 59 of the 1983 Act. The purpose of the section is to encourage service personnel to register to vote.
84.Subsection (1) of section 13 adds new subsections (9) to (12) to section 15 of the 1983 Act. Section 15(9) and (11) confer power on the Secretary of State to extend the length of service declarations from a year to up to five years and specify that he must consult the Electoral Commission before making the affirmative resolution Order. Section 15(9) provides that only service personnel, and their wives, spouses or civil partners, will be affected by the extension of service declarations.
85.Subsection (2) of section 13 amends subsections (3) and (4) of section 59 of the 1983 Act. The amendments restate the duties on appropriate government departments regarding registration and voting arrangements for employed service personnel. Section 59(3C) and (3D) will oblige the Ministry of Defence to maintain a record of the electoral registration arrangements of members of the forces, and must make arrangements to enable service personnel to update such information annually.