Chapter 2: Electoral Registration Without Applications
Section 3 - Duty to register local government electors
33.Subsection (1) omits section 18 of the Local Government and Elections (Wales) Act 2021, which contains provision regarding registration of local government electors without application that has not been brought into force.
34.Subsection (2) inserts a new section (9ZA) into the Representation of the People Act 1983 (hereafter referred to as “the 1983 Act”). Section 9ZA requires each electoral registration officer in Wales to add eligible electors to the local government register in Wales where the electoral registration officer is satisfied that the person is entitled to be registered. A local government register in Wales is used for elections of councillors to counties, county boroughs and communities in Wales along with elections for membership of Senedd Cymru. Electoral registration officers will need to verify the person’s identity and circumstances relating to eligibility in order to be satisfied; and electoral registration officers will need notify persons they intend to register before they do so. There will be no need for the elector to make an application through the existing system if the electoral registration officer has the duty to register them.
35.Section 9ZA(3) requires electoral registration officers to notify persons they are satisfied are eligible for registration before they are registered. The notice must be in writing informing the person of—
the electoral registration officer’s duty to register the person after the end of the notice period;
the exceptions to the electoral registration officer’s duty to register the person;
the elector’s right to request exclusion from the edited register of local government electors (if provision is made for an edited register in regulations under section 53 of the 1983 Act);
the elector’s right to apply for anonymous registration; and
the types of election the person will and will not be entitled to vote in as a result of being registered without an application (the person would be entitled vote in Senedd Cymru elections and elections for councillors in counties, county boroughs and communities in Wales, but it would not entitle them to vote in an election for membership of the House of Commons in the UK Parliament – an application for registration would be needed for that).
36.The notice period is 60 days (subsection (4) of section 9ZA) and this provides time for a person who receives a notice to respond to it with any concerns or objections before the electoral registration officer’s duty to register takes effect at the end of the period.
37.Subsection (5) of section 9ZA requires an electoral registration officer to register the person at the end of the 60-day notice period unless—
the person has notified the electoral registration officer that they do not wish to be registered (paragraph (a));
the electoral registration officer is no longer satisfied that the person is entitled to be registered (paragraph (b)); or
the person wishes to make an application for anonymous registration or has made one (paragraph (c)).
38.Where the person objects to their registration without application, the electoral registration officer is required to stop the automatic registration process and instead follow the process in section 9E of the 1983 Act, which requires an electoral registration officer to invite a person to apply for registration if, in relation to an unregistered person whose name and address the electoral registration officer knows, the electoral registration officer has reason to believe that the person is entitled to be registered. Section 9ZA(6) provides the Welsh Ministers with a power to make provision in regulations about the requirements of notices to a person who the electoral registration officer is considering registering under the section, including provision about the form of the notice and how and to whom it may or must be provided.
39.Subsections (8) and (9) require the regulations under subsection (6) to be made by statutory instrument and subject to the negative resolution procedure in the Senedd.
Section 4 - Provision connected to the duty to register eligible local government electors
40.Subsection (3) amends section 9E of 1983 Act to make provision about the relationship between the existing duties of electoral registration officers under section 9E with respect to invitations to apply for registration and the new duty to register without application under section 9ZA inserted by section 3. The effect of the amendment to section 9E is that the electoral registration officer’s duty in section 9E(1) will not apply whilst the registration process under section 9ZA is on-going.
41.Subsection (4) amends section 13A of the 1983 Act, which requires electoral registration officers to issue notices about alterations to the register listed in subsection (1) of that section. The addition of a person to the register under the new section 9ZA is added to the list of alterations that trigger the duty to issue notices. Subsections (5) and (6) make related consequential amendments to sections 13AB and 13B of the 1983 Act.
42.Subsections (7) and (9) amend section 53 of, and Schedule 2 to, the 1983 Act. Section 53 of the 1983 Act confers a power on the Secretary of State to make regulations about electoral registration under that Act, and Schedule 2 to the 1983 Act specifies things that can be done in regulations under section 53. The powers of the Secretary of State under section 53 (and Schedule 2) were transferred to the Welsh Ministers by the Welsh Ministers (Transfer of Functions) Order 2018 (S.I. 2018/644), so far as the powers are exercisable within the legislative competence of Senedd Cymru.
43.Subsection (9) amends Schedule 2 to the 1983 Act to specify further things that can be included in regulations under section 53 of that Act in connection with the new duty to register under section 9ZA.
44.Paragraph 1A of Schedule 2 provides for regulations to be made authorising or requiring a person to disclose information to another person for the purpose of assisting a registration officer in relation to matters specified in the paragraph. Paragraph (a) of subsection (9) amends paragraph 1A of Schedule 2, so that assisting a registration officer to decide whether a person is eligible to be included in the register for the purpose of section 9ZA is added to the list of matters in respect of which regulations authorising or requiring disclosure of information can be made.
45.Paragraph (b) of subsection (9) makes clear that regulations under section 53 can make provision about the steps that a registration officer is authorised or required to take for the purpose of deciding whether a person is eligible to be included in the register for the purpose of section 9ZA.
46.Subsection (7) amends section 53 to provide that regulations made by the Welsh Ministers under paragraph 1A(1)(aa) of Schedule 2 (inserted by subsection (9)(a)) authorising or requiring a person to disclose information cannot confer functions on, or modify the functions of, reserved authorities if provision doing such a thing would require the consent or consultation of a Minister of the Crown if the provision were included in an Act of Senedd Cymru.
47.Subsection (8) amends section 56 of the 1983 Act to confer a right of appeal to the county court from decisions under section 9ZA.
48.Paragraphs (c) and (d) of subsection (9) relate to the edited, or open, electoral register. These provisions disapply the regulation making powers in paragraphs 10 and 10B of Schedule 2 of the 1983 Act meaning that Welsh Ministers are not able to make regulations allowing for the creation and supply of an edited, or open, local government electoral register for an area in Wales.
