Written question asked by Alex Norris (Labour) on Monday, 30 October 2017, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 6 November 2017 (named day). It was answered by Chris Skidmore (Conservative) on Thursday, 16 November 2017 on behalf of the Cabinet Office.

Electoral Register: Email

Question: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of the Association of Electoral Administrators' recommendation that the collection of voters' email addresses should no longer be optional when registering to vote.

Answer: The register to vote service has processed over 29.4 million applications and one of the key reasons for the success of the service is it’s simplicity. Mandating the entry of an email address to complete an application to register to vote can create barriers to registration, as not everyone has an email address. This is why we encourage applicants to provide an email address rather than requiring one. We will continue to make sure that applicants are encouraged to provide e-mail addresses, recognising that holding this data can be helpful for Electoral Registration Officers.

Secondary information