Agenda item

The Electoral Services Manager submitted a report, which provided an update on a number of key work streams being undertaken by the Electoral Services Team, in relation to the Register of Electors Annual Canvass.

The Electoral Services Manager summarised the key points in the report and tabled for Members’ information, an updated copy of Appendix A to the report, which provided a breakdown of the Household Enquiry Forms (HEF) by return method in comparison to 2015 and 2016.  It was explained that the HEFs were sent out to the property and not the electors.  Members noted that at the start of the canvass, HEFs had been sent out to approximately 137,000 properties. Of the first letters that were sent out, there had been a 57% response rate from households, which were either responded to on-line, by phone, by text and by post.  It was noted that further to the second reminder being sent out, a good response was received.  A third reminder was subsequently sent out to chase up responses from those properties which hadn’t responded. The Electoral Services Team employed canvass staff  to visit properties to try and obtain a response. In addition to visiting properties they were also contacting people by telephone and social media and the One Stop Shop, the Councils Contact Centre and Council Tax departments were also trying to obtain a response when a member of the public contacted them.

It was reported that throughout the canvass, it had resulted in 13,073 people being sent an invitation to register, (ITR) form and the Council had obtained new people that had since been added to the register.  The Electoral Services Manager explained that these people had either moved or had reached the age of 18, 16-17 year old attainder’s, or people who had moved into the Borough that hadn’t completed the HEF s on line automatically.  It was further reported that the Council was currently investigating 7,712 electors on the register to identify if they may had been duplicated, due to a change of name.  It was reported that the Electoral Services Team endeavoured to encourage people to respond to the HEFs.

The Electoral Services Manager then outlined the activities taking place to help increase the response to the annual canvass and increase the number of electors on the register which included telephone canvassing, dedicated personal visits to care homes and HMO’s, targeting hard to reach/unapproachable areas, working with schools and colleges and social media.  It was noted that the annual canvass would end this week and the annual electoral register would be published on 1st December, 2017.

In referring to the statistics, Members were pleased to note that the total percentage return rate had increased from 71.58% in 2015 to 82.87% in 2016.  The Electoral Services Manager reported that Doncaster was currently at the same response rate to that of last year’s figures, with an additional £2,500 properties been added to the register and she hoped that this would increase up to another 5% once the canvass came to a close. 

During discussion, Members raised a few queriesand commented on various aspects of the report.  It was noted that:-

·       the Electoral Services Team liaised with south and west Yorkshire local authorities in order to ascertain information regarding returns achieved and shared and considered best practice.  At the beginning of September, Doncaster was achieving the same response rate as neighbouring authorities. 

·       8-12 people were employed to carry out the telephone canvass, who worked in the Council’s Contact Centre, and were very efficient and experienced in this type of work. It was noted that both personal visiting canvassers and telephone canvassers were paid by return results. 

·       In relation to the targeting of those people who were not registered, it was noted that the most cost effective and efficient way to get to those individuals on the register was by canvassers visiting their homes, rather than sending out a number of reminders by post.

·       In accordance with legislation, the Electoral Services Team were able to register people by telephone.  However, like any registration the information provided had to be verified by the Department of Works and Pensions.

·       The Council targeted people living in shared houses and amend the register of electors in terms of the number of people living in each room.

·       In relation to the response to the canvass, Electors were able to respond to the Household Enquiry Form via the Short Message Service (SMS), provided that there is no changes to the property.

·       The Council was not legally able to remove non-responders from the register of electors.  It was explained that the Council was unable to remove a person from the register, unless they had received notification and had been provided with two valid reasons to remove a person. 

During further discussion, regarding completion of the annual canvass in December, the Electoral Services Manager gave an undertaking to provide the Committee with details on the number of electors that had been obtained by canvassers knocking on doors and also to provide Members with a further update on the canvass statistics.

At the close of debate, the Chair on behalf of the Committee thanked the Electoral Services Manager and the Electoral Services Team and staff involved for their work in delivering the annual canvass, commenting that the electoral registration efforts were commendable.

RESOLVED that the report on the Register of Electors Annual Canvass, be noted.