§ Mr. WigginTo ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Department for Constitutional Affairs what percentage of UK citizens who live abroad participated in the last general election. [123597]
§ Mr. LeslieThe Foreign and Commonwealth Office estimates that there are around 15.5 million UK citizens living abroad, but not all of these will be eligible to register to vote as overseas electors. In February 2001, 11,496 UK citizens were registered to vote as overseas electors. However, no central record is kept on which of those electors chose to vote in the general election that followed in June that year.