Ms Petra Woods:

I agree that much good work was done through the years by the fieldworkers, and local authorities continue to do that work. Some make more use of fieldworkers than others. There are obviously difficulties now with fieldworkers in cities. Many people are living in apartments and are not at home all day. I understand that in other areas there are issues with gates, and so on. Fieldwork is still an important part of managing and updating the register, and will continue to be so. The heads of this legislation provide that we will expand and encourage local authorities to look at other ways of reaching out to people and encouraging them to engage with the registration process.

The schools programme is for 16 and 17-year-olds but they may also want to do registration drives at their local authority offices or in supermarkets on particular days, or to encourage people more generally.

We are aware that local authorities already do much good work for resourcing. There is provision in these heads for a funding model that will look at the work on the central database and how that service is paid for and resourced.

No change is being made to the marked registers. We have not strayed beyond making the registration process more accessible.