Councils tie voters’ data to addresses

As the general election draws closer, councils have undertaken improvements to make voter data more reliable

As the May 6 general election draws closer, electoral registers held by councils are for the first time benefiting from their linkage with the single address register, which was created by the National Land and Property Gazetteer (NLPG).

All information regarding voters is now associated with a property address in electoral registers, in accordance with a directive from the Ministry of Justice (MoJ). This not only ensures that as many people as possible can vote but also improves the reliability and accountability of electoral information.

An MoJ directive introduced in 2008 requires all local authorities to store their electoral data in a consistent way, with prescribed formatting for names, dates of birth and addresses.

Each address in a register is matched to a unique property reference number from the NLPG. The aim of the directive was to improve the quality and integrity of electoral registers, check political party donations and to help detect certain types of electoral fraud.

It also revealed that many properties were entirely missing from electoral registers.

The process of matching the two datasets has also improved the quality and reliability of the NLPG, and has facilitated the wider use of the data across councils.

In Nottingham, a city with more than 130,000 voters, the council found over 1,300 anomalous records in its electoral register, with more than 2,000 missing addresses.

“Although the matching exercise was technically challenging and could not have been achieved without close partnership of staff, software vendors and external consultants, the results have been worth it,” explained Diane Fieldhouse at Nottingham City Council.

“We have made sure that this was not a one-off exercise and provided the Democratic Services team with direct access to the NLPG. Electoral Register and address data are now maintained via regular change files direct from the NLPG, so there is no need for staff to input information manually.”