Luton Borough Council

Privacy notice for electoral registration

Why we are collecting your data?

The Electoral Registration Officer is a data controller and collects the personal data you provide for the purpose of registering your right to vote. You need to be registered to be able to vote in any election or referendum for which you are eligible. We have a duty to maintain a complete and accurate register throughout the year. We will only collect the personal data we need from you, in order to do this.

What is the legal basis for processing this data?

We do this as a legal obligation to comply with the Electoral Registration and Administration Act 2013 and Representation of the People Regulations 2001. This ensures you are registered to vote in any election or referendum for which you are eligible. The law makes it compulsory to provide information to an electoral registration officer for inclusion in the full register.

We keep records about potential and actual electors, voters, citizens, candidates and their agents, staff employed at an elections. These may be written down, or kept on a computer.

These records may include:

your name, address nationality and date of birth
unique identifiers (such as National Insurance Number)
signatures for absent vote checking
scanned application forms, documentary evidence, dates of any letters of correspondence
notes about any relevant circumstances that you have told us
your previous or any redirected address
the other occupants in your home
if you are over 76 or under 16/17
whether you have chosen to opt out of the open version of the register

Who will your information be shared with?

To verify your identity, the data you provide will be processed by the Individual Electoral Registration Digital Service managed by the Cabinet Office. As part of this process your data will be shared with the Department of Work and Pensions and the Cabinet Office suppliers that are data processors for the Individual Electoral Registration Digital Service.

You can find more information about this here

The information you provide is also held in electoral registers which are managed by electoral registration officers who, using information received, keep two registers – the full electoral register and the open (edited) register.

The full register is published once a year and is updated every month and can only be supplied to the following people and organisations:

British Library
UK Statistics Authority
Electoral Commission
Boundary Commission for England
Jury Summoning Bureau
elected representatives (MP, MEPS, Local Councillors)
Police and Crime commissioner
candidates standing for elections
local and national political parties
the council
parish and community councils
Police Forces, National Crime Agency
public library or local authority archive services
Government departments or bodies
credit reference agencies
National Fraud Initiative
electoral registration and returning officers

We also have to disclose (share) your information with our software providers and contracted printers.

It is a crime for anyone who has a copy of the full register to pass information from this register on to others, if they do not have a lawful reason to see it.

Anyone can inspect the full electoral register.

inspection of the register will be under supervision
they can take extracts from the register, but only by hand written notes
information taken must not be used for direct marketing purposes, in accordance with data protection legislation, unless it has been published in the open version
anyone who fails to observe these conditions is committing a criminal offence and will be charged a penalty of up to £5,000.

The open register contains the same information as the full register, but is not used for elections or referendums. It is updated and published every month and can be sold to any person, organisation or company for a wide range of purposes. It is used by businesses and charities for checking names and address details; users of the register include direct marketing firms and also online directory firms.

You can choose whether or not to have your personal details included in the open version of the register; however, they will be included unless you ask for them to be removed. Removing your details from the open register will not affect your right to vote.

How long will we hold your data for?

The Electoral Registration Officer and Returning Officer are obliged to process your personal data in relation to preparing for and conducting elections. Your details will be kept and updated in accordance with our legal obligations and in line with statutory retention periods.

What are your rights?

You are entitled to request a copy of any information about you that we hold. Any such requests must be made in writing.

If the information we hold about you is inaccurate you have a right to have this corrected and you have the right to request completion of incomplete data.

You have the right to request that we stop, or restrict the processing of your personal data, in certain circumstances. Where possible we will seek to comply with your request, but we may be required to hold or process information to comply with a legal requirement.

If you are dissatisfied with how the councils have used your personal information you have a right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office by emailing [email protected].

Contact info

Business Intelligence team (Data Protection)
Luton Council, Town Hall, George Street, Luton, LU1 2BQ

[email protected]