Registering and eligibility to vote
The Electoral Registers and your personal information
There are two registers. Why?
Using information received from the public, registration officers keep two registers – the electoral register and the open register (also known as the edited register).
The electoral register
The electoral register lists the names and addresses of everyone who is registered to vote in public elections. The register is used for electoral purposes, such as making sure only eligible people can vote. It is also used for other limited purposes specified in law, such as:
• detecting crime (e.g. fraud)
• calling people for jury service
• checking credit applications.
The open register
The open register is an extract of the electoral register, but is not used for elections. It can be bought by any person, company or organisation. For example, it is used by businesses and charities to confirm name and address details. Your name and address will be included in the open register unless you ask for them to be removed. Removing your details from the open register does not affect your right to vote.
You can find more information about both registers and how they may be used at www.gov.uk/register-to-vote.
Once an elector has opted out they don’t need to tell us again unless their circumstances change, such as re-registering at another address.
Additionally individual electors can contact the electoral registration office at the address or email address below at any time to ask for their details to be taken out of the open register. You will need to give us your name and address and confirm that you wish for your details to be excluded from the open register. Each person must do this individually – you cannot do this for other people. The request must be in writing, so you cannot do this by phone call.
If you opt-out you can also change your mind and ask for your details to be included in the open register, by writing to us at the address or email address below.
Your personal information
We will only use the information you give us for electoral purposes. We will look after personal information securely and we will follow the Data Protection Act 1998. We will not give personal information about you and the other people in your household to anyone else or another organisation unless we have to by law.
Please note that political parties and candidates are entitled to copies of the full Electoral Register prior to the elections, to assist them with their campaigns. There are strict rules regarding what they can do with the information contained within the register and are only entitled to use it for electoral purposes.