Written question asked by James Duddridge (Conservative) on Wednesday, 15 February 2006, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 27 February 2006. It was answered by Baroness Harman (Labour) on Monday, 27 February 2006 on behalf of the Department for Constitutional Affairs.

Electoral Reform

Question: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs if she will make a statement on the (a) current and (b) future status of the Co-ordinated Online Register of Electors.

Answer: The Co-ordinated Online Record of Electors (CORE) will provide a convenient single point of access to national users of electoral register data, including the political parties and the Electoral Commission.The Department has been working with providers of electoral register software, and Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) with in house systems, to ensure each are able to output electoral register data to a future CORE system in a standard format. Quality assurance testing will be completed during February. The ability of each system to accept data in this standard format, which will support rolling registration, will be developed over the next quarter. The cost of this work is being met by the Government.The Electoral Administration Bill currently before Parliament contains a number of clauses dealing with CORE. These clauses will allow for the implementation of the decisions that come from the discussion and responses generated by the consultation document.

Secondary information