South Gloucestershire Council

Published: 25/07/2014

You may need to take action to join the new individual electoral register, even if you are currently registered to vote.

We are writing to all South Gloucestershire residents to clarify if you need to re-register. You will receive a letter between the end of July and end of August which will tell you whether you need to take action to join the new register.

Most people who are currently registered have been added to the new register automatically, and the letter will let you know if this applies to you. Some people have not been added to the new register automatically and these people will need to re-register. The letter will tell you if you are in this group, and what you need to do to re-register.

The new registration system is called Individual Electoral Registration (IER). The introduction of IER in Great Britain will modernise the way people register to vote and help to tackle electoral fraud. The system will also give everyone who is eligible to vote control over their registration and the new online process will be quicker, convenient and more secure.

Under the new system:

• everyone is responsible for registering themselves (under the old system the ‘head of household’ could register everyone who lived at their address)
• you can now register online
• you need to provide a few more details to register (your national insurance number and date of birth), this is to make the electoral register more secure. These details are checked against government records to help make sure that registrations are genuine.

Cllr Howard Gawler, Chairman of South Gloucestershire Council, said: “You will need to register in order to be able to vote under the new system. If you aren’t registered to vote, you won’t have the chance to have a say on who represents you. By registering to vote you are playing your role as a British citizen and joining the vast majority of people who are already registered to vote in this country.”

Not only will you not be able to have a say at future elections and some referendums, but if you don’t respond to requests for information from us you could be at risk of getting fined £80. It is also necessary to register to vote if you wish to apply for credit. This is because credit reference agencies use the register to check where someone lives when they apply for credit in order to prevent fraud.

If you are a South Gloucestershire resident and you haven’t received a registration letter by the end of August then please contact the electoral services team by calling 01454 863030 or by emailing electoral.services@southglos.gov.uk

If you need to register or re-register please visit www.gov.uk/register-to-vote