§ Mr. DjanoglyTo ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Department for Constitutional Affairs how many people have been registered for a permanent postal vote in each constituency in the UK in e ich of the last three years. [185644]
§ Mr. LeslieThis information is not collected centrally. Individual Electoral Registration Officers may keep historical records of the number of postal voters in their registration area, though separate records are not kept of long-term postal voters and those for one election only. It is possible to apply for a postal vote at any time, and figures are not maintained on a yearly basis. Available statistics show that at the 2001 general election, 1,758,055 postal votes were issued in total (3.9 per cent. of the electorate) compared to 937,205 (2.1 per cent. of the electorate) at the 1997 general election.