Written question asked by Neil Turner (Labour) on Wednesday, 9 November 2005, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Tuesday, 15 November 2005. It was answered by Baroness Harman (Labour) on Tuesday, 15 November 2005 on behalf of the Department for Constitutional Affairs.

Electoral Registers

Question: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs what steps she plans to take to reduce the time taken to produce a copy of the marked register for those 2005 general election candidates who require one.

Answer: The provision of copies of the marked electoral registers for the 2005 General Election is in fact the responsibility of the Clerk of the Crown in Chancery. Pickfords Records Management store these documents on the Clerk of the Crown's behalf. There were problems with the service in the first three months immediately following the 5 May Election. In this period, we received the same number or requests as we received for the whole of the year following the 2001 General Election.This was due to the unforeseen volume of requests, which far exceeded the number of requests following the previous General Election. However, I have been assured that these problems have now been resolved.

Secondary information