Southwark Electoral Registration Anomaly

[ianr]

In today's post I received a Confirmation of Voter Registration 2014 from Southwark Council. It has my name and nationality correct but does NOT have the Opt Out (of inclusion in edited register for sale) column ticked. It also has my address in the form [House Number] E22 9NF, London, [Actual Postcode].

I've always selected Opt Out since the option was introduced, and made no change when I last submitted my details online, via the Electoral Reform Society site, on 4 October 2013. My screen shots and a confirmation email from ERS, all of the same date, all confirm that I had selected Opt Out.

I'll be contacting the Southwark electoral registration office and James Barber about this, with copies of the evidence. I very much hope hope it's the case that Southwark are not yet selling the relevant edited edition.

I assume this hasn't happened just to me.

[Edited to enable proper display of the erroneous address: Phorum as configured treated my angle brackets as HTML commands. I have now emailed Southwark and James B]

[Lowlander]

Our confirmation arrived yesterday and had the same error (bar address). I too always opt-out.

[ruffers]

We had the same anomaly. My understanding is it's not a mistake, they are requiring everyone to pro actively opt out again.

Not impressed.

I just called them. If you renewed your details on line apparently there was no option to (re) opt out, so you were set to the default (of not being opted out). The option now exists so we all need to re update it, there is a period until the end of March to finish the updates and clarifications but it's something we need to do proactively, it won't revert without action.

(Just the messenger people)

[ianr]

Ruffers. That seems to be it. Thanks. I do now remember looking at the change in legislation or administration, when the topic came up in a law newsgroup last year, but had expected official clarity, which in this case would have meant an accompanying explanation of the current request, rather than what looks like the same-old, and which states my _current_ status to be unopted-out.

No online option either. No Business Reply envelope, as previously. I think I shall use one from a previous year.

[Peckhamrye]

Lack of envelope or on-line facility seriously irritating!

[Lowlander]

I called them today, the chap knew all about the problem. Only way of resolving apparently is to check the box, sign and return.

[Siduhe]

As ruffers said, we got our confirmation form back yesterday and suddenly were no longer opted-out.

The half hearted explanation I got yesterday from the helpline was "oh, you need to pro-actively opt-out again". That seemed to be a decision designed to make it as hard as possible for people to opt out of having their details sold for commercial purposes (or that's how it seemed to me), so I sent a pretty narky email to the Electoral Services team saying so.

What I've just been told by someone different from the Electoral Services team is that it's all a mistake and the confirmation letter is in error, and that we are all still opted out. I don't think I'll take the chance that the second explanation is the right one, so will be amending my confirmation form to opt out again and send back to them.

[ianr]

It's a period of transition. This is from an Electoral Commission press release:

"The Electoral Registration and Administration Act 2013, which received Royal Assent on 31 January 2013, provides for the introduction of Individual Electoral Registration. From summer 2014, each individual will need to provide their date of birth and national insurance number when they apply to register." http://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/i-am-a/journalist/electoral-commission-media-centre/news-releases-reviews-and-research/major-change-to-electoral-registration-can-go-ahead-but-risks-to-address,-says-electoral-commission

I might look through the detailed EC stuff to see how far Southwark's practice matches their guidance (at http://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/i-am-a/electoral-administrator/running-electoral-registration).

[ianr]

I've so far found that, by virtue of The Electoral Registration (Postponement of 2013 Annual Canvass) Order 2013, the 1913 annual canvass relevant date of 15 October was changed, and a postponed canvass was to be made during the period 1 October 2013 to 17 February 2014 inclusive. The regulations then state:

"3.(1) Each registration officer in England must publish a revised version of their registers by 17th February 2014."

If that's so, a serious initial question now is, How accurate are the Confirmation of Voter Registration 2014 notices that we've just received? And if they do accurately state the currently held value of our deemed Opt Out statuses, have any copies of the Edited Version already been sold?

[louiseneilan]

Hi,

Southwark Council's electoral registration officer has asked me to get in touch to apologise to you for the confusion caused and clarify what has happened with the 'opting out' option on the electoral registration forms.

We have been contacted by several residents about this issue, which has now been resolved. Due to a computer glitch, the residents who indicated that they wished to opt out of the edited register when they confirmed their elector details by telephone and by internet were sent a confirmation letter that indicated that they had not opted out, when they had in fact requested this.

As soon as we were aware of this problem we contacted our software suppliers. They were able to rectify the problem, and now all the residents who had requested an opt out have had their records updated. They will be sent another confirmation letter, indicating that they do indeed have the opt out of the edited register correctly recorded.

Some of the incorrect data had been passed to four credit reference agencies. We have now contacted them and they have deleted the incorrect data, which had not been used. We have replaced this information with the correct information. We would like to reassure residents that if they had opted out, their details are not held on record by any third parties as a result of this error.

Sorry again for the confusion.

Kind regards,

Louise Neilan

Media Manager

Southwark Council

[ruffers]

Thanks Louise.

[DulwichFox]

Mine is the same.. But it was my error...

Although my circumstances have not changed the last time I filled out the obligatory

for, the one you have to reply to from time to time(I do mine on line)I forgot to tick the OPT OUT Box.

I could just send back this form but not really that bothered..

DulwichFox.

[ianr]

louiseneilan Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Some of the incorrect data had been passed to four

> credit reference agencies. We have now contacted

> them and they have deleted the incorrect data,

> which had not been used. We have replaced this

> information with the correct information. We would

> like to reassure residents that if they had opted

> out, their details are not held on record by any

> third parties as a result of this error.

>

This doesn't make sense to me, I'm afraid. Regulation 114 of the 2001 regulations explicitly permits sale of the full register to credit reference agencies. http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2002/1871/regulation/15/made

Ed: This thread was moved, btw, from General ED Issues to the Lounge, in the last hour or two.

[James Barber]

This is the explanation I've received from council officers:

"

From:

To: Barber, James;

Cc: Sent: Thu Feb 20 18:00:50 2014

Subject: RE: Urgent - possibility of unlawful publication

Hi James

A fuller response below:

Southwark Council's electoral registration officer has asked me to get in touch to apologise to you for the confusion caused and clarify what has happened with the 'opting out' option on the electoral registration forms.

We have been contacted by several residents about this issue, which has now been resolved. Due to a computer glitch, the residents who indicated that they wished to opt out of the edited register when they confirmed their elector details by telephone and by internet were sent a confirmation letter that indicated that they had not opted out, when they had in fact requested this.

As soon as we were aware of this problem we contacted our software suppliers. They were able to rectify the problem, and now all the residents who had requested an opt out have had their records updated. They will be sent another confirmation letter, indicating that they do indeed have the opt out of the edited register correctly recorded.

Some of the incorrect data had been passed to four credit reference agencies. We have now contacted them and they have deleted the incorrect data, which had not been used. We have replaced this information with the correct information. We would like to reassure residents that if they had opted out, their details are not held on record by any third parties as a result of this error.

Kind regards,

"

Not yet clear who will be landed with the bill of resending all this informaiton to tens of thousands of people at 50p a shot.

[PeckhamRose]

Yet to receive mine but thank you so much for telling us about this.

[Sue]

Thank you ianr, I never even noticed. Just glanced at it when it came.

Just dug the thing out of my filing pile and indeed there is no opt out tick where there should be one.

I'm assuming I'm one of the people who will be sent a corrected form.

[skylorikeet]

ianr Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> In today's post I received a Confirmation of Voter

> Registration 2014 from Southwark Council. It has

> my name and nationality correct but does NOT have

> the Opt Out (of inclusion in edited register for

> sale) column ticked. It also has my address in

> the form E22 9NF, London, .

>

> I've always selected Opt Out since the option was

> introduced, and made no change when I last

> submitted my details online, via the Electoral

> Reform Society site, on 4 October 2013. My screen

> shots and a confirmation email from ERS, all of

> the same date, all confirm that I had selected

> Opt Out.

>

> I'll be contacting the Southwark electoral

> registration office and James Barber about this,

> with copies of the evidence. I very much hope

> hope it's the case that Southwark are not yet

> selling the relevant edited edition.

>

> I assume this hasn't happened just to me.

>

>

I followed this thread from earlier this year (apologies for only quoting this message - I couldn't work out how to reference the whole thread) and contacted Southwark to re-confirm my opt-out. Today I have found out that I am NOT opted out and various organisations have bought my details via the electoral roll. Southwark are very apologetic and have reinstated my opt out. I'm letting the forum know in case the same thing has happened to others.