The Electoral Registration Data Schemes (No. 2) Order 2012

Made: 19th December 2012

Coming into force in accordance with article 1

In accordance with section 35(10) of that Act, a draft of this Order has been laid before and approved by each House of Parliament.

Citation, commencement and interpretation

1

This Order may be cited as the Electoral Registration Data Schemes (No. 2) Order 2012 and comes into force on the day after the day on which it is made.

2

In this Order—

• “the Act” means the Political Parties and Elections Act 2009;

• “area” means— in England, a district or London borough; in Wales, a county or county borough; in Scotland, a local government area;

• “authority” has the meaning given in article 3.

Authorisation of data schemes

3

Subject to article 4, a person mentioned in the second column of the table in Part 1 of the Schedule (“an authority”) may provide to the registration officer for the area in the corresponding entry in the first column of that table—

• (a) information described in the entry corresponding to that authority in the table in Part 2 of the Schedule which relates to that area;

• (b) information kept in the same database as the information authorised to be provided under paragraph (a) and which relates to the source, collection or recording of that information.

4

• (1) An authority may provide information to a registration officer under article 3 only if—

• (a) the information is provided before 17th April 2013;

• (b) the information is provided for the purpose mentioned in section 35(2) of the Act; and

• (c) the authority and the registration officer have agreed in writing, in relation to the scheme, requirements as to the processing of information, including requirements as to the transfer, storage, destruction and security of information.

• (2) An agreement under paragraph (1)(c) must make provision for the consequences of a failure to comply with such requirements, and those consequences may include the suspension or termination of the provision of information by the authority.

Evaluation date

5

For the purpose of section 36(3) of the Act, the evaluation date for each scheme is 17th July 2013.

SCHEDULE — Specification of areas, authorities and information

PART 1 — Scheme areas and authorities

PART 2 — Information authorised to be provided by each authority

Signed

Signed by authority of the Lord President of the Council

Chloë Smith — Minister for Political and Constitutional Reform — Cabinet Office — 19th December 2012

Explanatory note

(This note is not part of the Order)

EXPLANATORY NOTE

This Order is the third of a series of orders[^f00007] establishing schemes for the provision of data to specified electoral registration officers, in order to assist them in meeting the registration objectives set out at section 31(8) of the Political Parties and Elections Act 2009, those being—

• (a) that persons who are entitled to be registered in an electoral register are registered in it;

• (b) that persons who are not entitled to be registered in an electoral register are not registered in it; and

• (c) that none of the information relating to a registered person that appears in a register or other record kept by a registration officer is false.

Article 3 provides that specified authorities may provide data to the registration officers under the schemes. Part 1 of the Schedule lists the areas in which schemes have effect and the authorities which may provide data to the registration officer for each area. Part 2 of the Schedule sets out data which each of the authorities may provide, and article 3(b) enables authorities to provide related data, for example the date on which an address was last updated and the source of that update. An authority may only provide data to a registration officer if the data relates to that registration officer’s area.

Article 4 provides that data may only be provided under each scheme before 17th April 2013, for the purpose set out in the 2009 Act and if the authority and the registration officer have agreed in writing requirements for the processing of data under the schemes. The agreement must include the consequences of failing to comply with the requirements agreed.

Article 5 provides that the date by which the Electoral Commission must produce a report on the operation of each scheme under section 36(3) of the 2009 Act is 17th July 2013.

A full regulatory impact assessment has not been produced for this instrument as no impact on the private or voluntary sectors is foreseen. However, a privacy impact assessment is annexed to the Explanatory Memorandum which is available alongside this instrument at www.legislation.gov.uk.

Footnotes

[^f00001]: 2009 c. 12. Article 3 of the Lord President of the Council Order 2010 (S.I. 2010/1837) provides that the Secretary of State’s functions under the 2009 Act (with exceptions which are not relevant here) are exercisable concurrently by the Secretary of State and the Lord President of the Council.

[^f00002]: The name of the County has been changed from Cardiganshire to Ceredigion in accordance with section 74 of the Local Government Act 1972.

[^f00003]: The name of the County has been changed from Aberconwy and Colwyn to Conwy in accordance with section 74 of the Local Government Act 1972.

[^f00004]: The Department for Social Development was established by article 3(1)(e) of the Departments (Northern Ireland) Order 1999 (S.I. 1999/283(N.I. 1)).

[^f00005]: “Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs” is defined at section 4 of the Commissioners for Revenue and Customs Act 2005 (c. 11).

[^f00006]: 1996 c. 56. The definition of “Academy” was inserted by paragraph 6 of Schedule 2 to the Academies Act 2010 (c. 32).

[^f00007]: The first two such orders were the Electoral Registration Data Schemes Order 2011 (S.I. 2011/1466) and the Electoral Registration Data Schemes Order 2012 (S.I. 2012/1944).