The Government estimates that a further 3 million British citizens resident overseas would be enfranchised by the 'votes for life' proposals set out in the policy statement published on 7 October.

The policy statement also sets out how applicants will be required to establish a connection to a UK address. For those whose previous registration cannot be verified, or who were not previously registered, documentary evidence or an attestation can be used. The additional costs will be highly dependent upon the number of eligible electors who apply to vote and to renew their registrations.

As stated in my previous answer to HL 2496, the Government is currently conducting a “discovery phase” in relation to understanding the issue of duplicate applications. It is right that we will need to meet the needs both of citizens and administrators when considering the right way forward. In discussions with administrators and others to date, it has become clear there are wide-ranging views on whether citizens would use a look-up tool in practice. There are also wide-ranging views on the kind of intervention that would most benefit administrators. That is why our evidence-gathering phase is so important. This discovery phase is also important for us to understand the practical considerations of the different possible solutions.

We welcome the Electoral Commission’s recommendation. This recommendation reflects the success of activities conducted by the Government to promote registration ahead of the EU Referendum that complemented the activity delivered by the Commission.

The Electoral Commission’s report on the EU Referendum has found that at the referendum there were 19 allegations relating to personation at a polling station and that following police inquiries, five of these cases have been resolved as no further action required, one resulted in a caution being accepted, and the remaining 13 are still under investigation. The Commission’s report states that 33,577,342 votes were cast at the referendum. The Government is currently considering the recommendations of the independent review by my Rt Hon Friend, the Member for Brentwood and Ongar (Sir Eric Pickles), which includes recommendations on tackling the scope for personation and introducing voter ID at polling stations.

The Government has noted the Electoral Commission’s comments on this issue in its report on the EU Referendum. The rules governing the conduct of the referendum, which were based on the legislation in place for UK Parliamentary elections, did not specify the type of writing implement that electors must use to complete their ballot paper and voters were able to use the pencil provided or mark their ballot paper with a pen if they preferred. There were also specific safeguards in place to protect the integrity of the ballot.

We are not aware of any cases of ballot papers being changed at the referendum.

It is the responsibility of Local Authorities, under the Representation of the People Act 1983, to appoint an Electoral Registration Officer who has a statutory duty to maintain registers of UK Parliamentary and local government electors for their area. To support Local Authorities with this process, and fund the transition to Individual Electoral Registration, the Cabinet Office has provided over £25 million of funding in 2014/2015 and over £15 million in 2015/2016. In addition, the Government has committed to cover the additional costs associated with the modernisation of electoral registration for at least the rest of this parliament.

The Government recognises that finding a way to reduce the number of duplicate applications to register to vote would be beneficial for both citizens and electoral administrators. An online registration checking tool is one of many potential solutions.

We are currently in the discovery phase of investigating the issue of duplicate applications and are scoping a number of options. Whether or not an online registration checking tool is the most viable solution will only become clear after this work has been completed.

The Government have received Sir Eric Pickles’s review and will carefully consider its findings and recommendations. We are committed to tackling any form of fraud in the UK polls and this report will help inform the debate to ensure that our elections have the highest integrity. We will look closely at the proposals set out in the report and provide a full response in due course.