§ Mr. VazTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to his answer of 2 June,Official Report, columns 90–91, if he will make a statement on the statistics published on 2 June, Official Report, column 91, in respect of the decline in the percentage of eligible adults who are registered to vote over the last 20 years. [3072]
§ Mr. George HowarthIt is not possible to make a direct comparison between electoral registration figures and estimates of the resident population, because they are not compiled on the same basis. The 1997 electoral register for Great Britain published in February showed the highest ever number of parliamentary electors registered to vote and saw the largest annual increase since 1987. We will seek to encourage this continuing improvement in electoral registration.