Electoral Registration (Northern Ireland) Act 2005

The Electoral Registration (Northern Ireland) Act 2005 (c 1) was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It expired on 24 February 2006.

Baroness Amos said that the Bill for this Act was introduced because the government was concerned that only 85% of those eligible to vote in Northern Ireland were included in the electoral register (compared to 93% in Great Britain).

Parliamentary debates
The Bill for this Act passed through its stages in the House of Lords on the following dates:

The Bill received its Second and Third Reading in the House of Commons on 24 February 2005.

Restoration to electoral register of names previously removed
This section read:

"(1) Where -
 * (a) on 15 October 2004 a person ('the former elector') was for the time being registered in the register in respect of any address in Northern Ireland,
 * (b) on the conclusion of the canvass conducted in Northern Ireland under section 10 of the 1983 Act (maintenance of registers: annual canvass) by reference to residence on that day, the name of the former elector was removed from the register in respect of that address-
 * (i) by virtue of section 10A(5)(a) of that Act, merely because the form mentioned in section 10(4) of that Act was not returned in respect of that address, or
 * (ii) by virtue of section 10A(5A) of that Act, and
 * (c) the Chief Electoral Officer has no information which suggests that the former elector has ceased to be resident at that address or has otherwise ceased to satisfy the conditions for registration set out in section 4 of the 1983 Act,

the Chief Electoral Officer may enter the name of the former elector in the register in respect of that address. (2) The power conferred by subsection (1) may only be exercised-
 * (a) before 1 April 2005, or
 * (b) by including the appropriate alteration in any revised version of the register published under section 13(3) of the 1983 Act on that day;

and (in either case) the appropriate alteration shall have effect as from the beginning of that day. (3) Nothing in section 13A of the 1983 Act (alteration of registers) applies in relation to an alteration taking effect under this section. (4) Where by virtue of subsection (1) the Chief Electoral Officer enters the name of a person in the register in respect of any address-
 * (a) the information supplied by that person pursuant to section 10(4A), 10A(1A) or 13A(2A) of the 1983 Act in connection with his previous registration is to be taken also to have been supplied by him in connection with his registration by virtue of this section, and
 * (b) any request duly made by that person in connection with his previous registration to be excluded from the version of the register published under regulation 88 of the Representation of the People (Northern Ireland) Regulations 2001 (S.I. 2001/400) (edited version of register) is to be taken also to have been made by him in connection with his registration by virtue of this section.

(5) In this section- 'the Chief Electoral Officer' means the Chief Electoral Officer for Northern Ireland; 'the register' means-
 * (a) the register of parliamentary electors maintained by the Chief Electoral Officer under section 9 of the 1983 Act, or
 * (b) the register of local electors maintained by him under that section as applied by Schedule 1 to the Elected Authorities (Northern Ireland) Act 1989 (c. 3)."

"the 1983 Act"

This means the Representation of the People Act 1983.

Temporary modifications of s. 10A of Representation of the People Act 1983
This section modified section 10A of the Representation of the People Act 1983.