Takeaways from the Parliamentary Roundtable on Automatic Voter Registration

Parliament should represent the voters – all the voters. That is impossible while an estimated 6-8 million eligible people remain missing from the electoral register, disproportionately young people, private renters and people from ethnic minority communities.

There is no good reason why, in Britain, registering to vote is more difficult than in most other comparable democracies. Especially when there is a tried-and-tested solution on hand: automatic voter registration (AVR).

The government has committed in principle to introducing AVR, and the Representation of the People Bill currently before Parliament would give ministers the powers needed to begin delivering it. That commitment is welcome, but there are growing concerns that momentum is beginning to stall.

That was the focus of Unlock Democracy’s recent parliamentary roundtable on AVR. Bringing together MPs, election administrators, academics, campaigners and government officials, the discussion explored three questions: why Britain needs AVR, what the evidence says about its impact, and what ministers must now do to ensure it is in place in time for the next general election.

Barrier to participation

For Florence Eshalomi MP, then Chair of the Housing, Communities and Local Government Select Committee, who chaired the event, people should be helped to participate in democracy, not find barriers erected in their way.

It’s not for lack of interest in voting that missing voter numbers are so high. As Vijay Rangarajan, Chief Executive of the Electoral Commission, remarked, “every time there’s an election we see a wonderful spike of people trying to register on election day. That tells you there is an unmet demand. People who wish they were able to go and vote that day are trying to register that day... That gives us a hint that there is a barrier to some people who do actually want to vote.”

Those barriers do not affect everyone equally. Representatives from Generation Rent, My Life My Say, the National Union of Students and the Black Equity Organisation highlighted how the current registration system particularly disadvantages people who move frequently, including students and young people, and those from minority communities. AVR would remove one of the biggest structural obstacles they face before they even reach the ballot box.

AVR is better for voters and election administrators

The case for AVR is not only democratic, it is practical. Having more voters on the electoral register, so-called completeness, does not damage the register’s accuracy. Indeed, summarising evidence from 159 countries, Professor Toby James of the University of East Anglia explained that countries with AVR achieve both more complete and more accurate electoral registers. By reducing the administrative burden of chasing and processing registration applications – particularly the last-minute surge before elections – AVR “can potentially save money in the long term as well,” he said.

In the last year, Wales has completed AVR pilots in four council areas and started preparing its full rollout ahead of the 2027 local elections. Anna Jones, from the Elections Division at the Welsh Government, described how more than 14,500 people were added automatically to the electoral register – between 2% and 8% of the electorate in the participating areas – using local government data alone, while the independent evaluation found “very limited public concern about the process, with relatively low opt-out rates.”

The pilots, Jones said, provided “really encouraging evidence” that AVR improves the completeness of the register, alongside “valuable practical lessons in how the system can be implemented effectively.”

From evidence to implementation

Countries such as Canada and Australia have already demonstrated that AVR works in practice. Canada has successfully operated a national register drawing on multiple public data sources for decades, while Australia introduced direct enrollment using existing government data and began adding voters within around eighteen months.

Wales, too, has demonstrated how governments can move rapidly from political commitment to delivery.

As Mr Rangarajan observed, implementation is not about having the perfect system on day one: “You do not get all the way to the final state immediately. You start with something and then you evolve and evolve and evolve it.”

Time is running out

All those present had a shared concern. The Representation of the People Bill gives ministers the opportunity to deliver one of the most significant democratic reforms in a generation. The data and case studies are established. 

What is needed now is a clear implementation timetable, and the political will to ensure AVR is up and running by 2029.  

It should make Andy Burnham’s urgent to do list.