I promised to alert readers when the Government eventually got round to consulting on the future of the edited version of the electoral register. As you may recall, I got a response from a minister earlier this year saying it was intended to commence the consultation before the summer recess. The commitment then changed to holding it ‘as soon as possible’.
The Government have now announced that they are consulting on the future of the edited register. The consultation will run for the recommended period of three months and close on 23 February 2010. Further details, including a copy of the consultation paper, can be found here on the Ministry of Justice website.
A battered wife moves away from her violent ex. She is forced by law to register on the electoral roll which the Government sell. The ex finds her and kills her.
Betrayed by the Government for financial gain.
A man makes a mistake and gets into debt, hoping to find a way out he moves but is forced by law to register on electoral roll. Bailiffs find him and in their normal capacity are totally unreasonable and ruin him.
Betrayed by the Government for financial gain.
A mafia type organisation in a foreign country obtain the electoral register and setup a false company. They know most details of people from the register. They gain the rest using deception. Fraud against many is committed.
In the fisrt two instances these people would simply not register, giving up their rights. The Government cannot keep taking personal information and then selling it for gain, it`s immoral.
UKinfo disk £159
“The most powerful of all the UK-Info Disk range, UK-Info Disk Pro is an essential tool for any business. Containing over 56 million residential and business listings, compiled from both the Electoral Roll and BT’s OSIS database, ”
http://www.bullnet.co.uk/shops/test/uk.htm
and of course 192.com
http://www.192.com/
It is even cheaper than that. It’s been leaked and you can get it via the Peer to Peer cloud
Free
Likewise Wikileaks has the post office database of post codes if you want it.
Nick
@Carl Holbrough: I’m not sure all these cases would be solved simply by scrapping the edited register. They are also issues surrounding the availability of the full register, which has nothing to do with commercial gains. It’s more to do with transparency of the electoral process vs privacy.
In case 1, the wife would certainly opt out of being on the edited register anyway. The husband would presumably have to go to the council offices in every council area to find out where she lived, if she’d moved area.
In case 2, I presume the bailiffs can apply to access data from the full register. However, I’m not sure people should be able to simply run away from their debts, which the rest of us ultimately then have to pay for. If bailiffs behave unreasonably, that’s for separate legislation.
Case 3 I agree with. People can opt out of the edited register, but many still do not, often because the default is to be included. There are other ways organisations can find people’s information, but that’s besides the point. The government shouldn’t be providing a service for the spamming and junk mailing industry, which already bothers many of us quite enough even without data from the register. The edited register undermines confidence in the whole registration process, if only because people don’t understand the difference between the two versions of the register.
@Jonathon
1)How to put this without seeming offensive to someone.hmmm
A lot of abused, battered wives are from working class backgrounds at the lower end of the education scale. PLEASE NOTE NOT ALL. Forms such as the electoral register are seen as an intrusion, she wouldn`t opt out of being on the edited what she would do is break the law by not declaring herself if possible. If the Council came knocking on the door to fill in the form she would just give them her name and wouldn`t notice the opt out.
2) I stated he made a mistake I did not say he had no intention of making amends. Sometimes third parties such as bailiffs do not have access to full details nor are they bothered. They are only interested in financial results.But I`m arguing over a hypothetical which is silly, it was an off the cuff analogy, apologies.
The only way as you intimated is to make the default the opt out. This has happened to a lot of online products who also used to make the default opt in.
The electoral register should be used solely for elections. It should be classified and open to no company or person. The right to vote in private is fundamental to a democratic system and the system for registering should be the same. It has been thoroughly abused by rogue organisations (particularly financial ones)and needs fundamental reform.