13Publication of registers
(1)Registers of parliamentary and local government electors or, in Northern Ireland, of parliamentary electors, shall be——
(a)prepared and published once a year, and
(b)published not later than 15th February,
and registers published in any year shall be used for elections at which the date fixed for the poll falls within the period of twelve months beginning with 16th February in that year.
(2)The Secretary of State has power to make regulations altering the interval in Northern Ireland between the qualifying date and the date of publication of the registers of parliamentary electors by changing either date, and any such regulations may make such consequential provisions (including the modification of any enactment contained in this or any other Act) as may appear to the Secretary of State to be necessary.
(3)If any part of a register is not published within the time required by this section, then until the day following that on which it is published the corresponding part of the previous register shall continue in use.
(4)Where any part of the register used at an election is a part continued in force by subsection (3) above, the Representation of the People Acts (including this Act) shall have effect in relation to die election and the area to which that part relates as if the qualifying date by reference to which that part was prepared were the qualifying date for the election.