To ask the Minister of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs which local authorities use telephone registration to register electors. [79078]

A number of local authorities use telephone registration to register electors. As electoral services are delivered at local level the information sought would be held by individual local authorities and is not collected by central Government.

To ask the Minister of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs what rules govern registration to vote by telephone; and whether she plans to change these rules. [79079]

Section 10 of the Representation of the People Act 1983 requires electoral registration officers (EROs) to use a form when carrying out an annual canvass for the purpose of compiling the electoral register. When doing this there is no bar in current electoral legislation to EROs using telephone systems to enable households to report no change to the information given during the previous annual canvass. There are no plans to change these rules.