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Elections: CORE Response Paper

My honourable friend the Parliamentary Secretary, Department for Constitutional Affairs, Bridget Prentice, has made the following Ministerial Statement. Today, I am pleased to announce to the House the publication of my department’s response to the consultations on the co-ordinated online record of electors. CORE will provide a national source of locally collected and maintained electoral registration data. CORE will, in addition to reducing the administrative burden on users, assist political parties and the Electoral Commission to meet their obligations under the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000 to ensure that donations to parties are from registered electors. It will also provide an important first step to systematically detecting any potential instances of absent voter fraud. The Electoral Administration Act 2006 makes provision for the establishment of one or more co-ordinated online record of electors (CORE) schemes. The scheme will shortly be established by a secondary legislation order, a draft of which would first need to be actively approved by both Houses of Parliament. The paper sets a clear vision for the operation of the CORE scheme and also highlights the importance of improving the quality of elector information held on local registers to ensure that it is complete and correct. Copies of the consultation response document are available in the Libraries of both Houses and will also be made available on the website of the Department for Constitutional Affairs.