At its meeting held on 15 January 2014, the Policy and Performance Coordinating Committee considered a report from the Director of Public Health / Head of Policy and Performance on a detailed account of a Scrutiny Review which had considered Wirral’s preparations for the introduction of Individual Electoral Registration (IER) in 2014.

The Committee had agreed to refer the report to Cabinet. The minute and report are attached.

The Cabinet received a report that the Director of Public Health/Head of Policy and Performance had written for consideration by the Policy and Performance Co-ordinating Committee at its meeting held on 15 January 2014.  The report contained a detailed account of a Scrutiny Review which had considered Wirral’s preparations for the introduction of Individual Electoral Registration (IER) in 2014.  The Members who had undertaken the work were Councillors Jean Stapleton, Moira McLaughlin, Denise Roberts and Steve Williams.

The Committee had referred the report to the Cabinet for consideration. The Committee Minute No. 30 and the Scrutiny Review Report were appended to the Cabinet’s agenda for Members’ information.

Councillor Jean Stapleton, the Chair of the Scrutiny Review Panel was in attendance at the meeting and informed the Cabinet that the four Members had approached the review with some trepidation but had been pleasantly surprised by the preparation that had been undertaken by officers.  The quality of the work in advance of the scrutiny process had made the task easier.

Councillor Stapleton reported that the Panel’s assessment was that overall Wirral was in a strong position and was likely to have a relatively smooth transfer to IER in 2014.  From the preliminary work done to date, it was hoped that 89% of people would be automatically transferred to the new register.  The Council had achieved 83% positive matches with DWP data on the trial run (the national average was 75%; which increased to 89% following a further local matching exercise.  However, Panel Members were concerned that in some wards, notably those with higher levels of known deprivation, there would be higher proportions of voters not automatically transferred.  Significantly more work would have to be undertaken to ensure these voters were successfully transferred.  This review had also shown that these areas also had more people that do not register to vote.  This emphasised the need for the Council to take a targeted approach with the additional resources available.

Councillor Stapleton informed that the Panel was also concerned that these same locations tended to have higher numbers of people not on the electoral register.  As such, Members were keen for the IER process to be used as a vehicle to promote electoral registration more generally to encourage those not registered to register.

The review had provided a good opportunity for Members of the Policy and Performance Co-ordinating Committee to understand the changes that would be introduced next year. This was an issue that all Members needed to be aware of so that they could answer questions from constituents as the transfer to IER drew nearer.

Councillor Ann McLachlan welcomed the Scrutiny Review Report and congratulated the four Members concerned on an excellent piece of work on horizon scanning.  She informed that the government had provided funding to publicise IER so that people would register and ICT, local media and radio were being used for this purpose.  The Council was working with the other Merseyside Councils on this campaign.

RESOLVED: That

(1)  the six recommendations set out in the Individual Electoral Registration Scrutiny Review Report be endorsed;

(2)  the four Constituency Managers be alerted to recommendation (3) (a request to Chairs of Constituency Committees to include IER on agendas as a topic for discussion); and

(3)  the Officer Team be congratulated on their hard work in relation to the report.