FOI request (FOIR-156742895)

RE: Sale of Electoral Data

Requested Wed 13 November 2019
Responded  Fri 07 February 2020

May you please supply me with the following information under Freedom of Information laws.

Amount of data sold:

-How much money did the council earn from selling data from the electoral register and how many times was this data sold?

-May you please provide the figures per financial year for the following years: 2018/19, 2017/18 and 2016/17.

-For example, in 2018/19, the council earned £1200 in total from selling information from the electoral register. The data was sold to different organisations five times within the financial year.

Buyers of the data: 

-If possible under FOI laws, may you please provide further information on the buyers of the data in each instance and whether they purchased data from the full electoral register or the 'open register'.

-May you please provide the figures per financial year for the following years: 2018/19, 2017/18 and 2016/17.

- For example, in 2018/19, the council sold data to external organisations 5 times. The council made £1200 in total from these 5 sales. One sale was to the credit agency Equifax, amounting to £1000. In this instance, Equifax purchased data from the full register.

Definitions for clarity:

The 'full' electoral register: lists the names and addresses of everyone who is registered to vote in public elections. Government departments may buy the register from local registration officers and use it to help prevent and detect crime. Credit reference agencies can buy the register.

The 'open' register: is an extract of the electoral register, but is not used for elections. It can be bought by any person, company or organisation.

SOURCE: http://www.legislation.gov.uk/en/uksi/2013/3198/schedule/3/chapter/2/made

If you believe the contents of any such files are exempt from disclosure, please provide summaries of any such exempt files.

If this request is denied in whole or in part, I ask that you justify all deletions and exemptions by reference to specific exemptions under the Act.

My preferred mode of access to this information is electronic. I would be grateful if you would confirm that you have received this request.

I look forward to your response within 20 working days, as outlined by statute.

Response

Please accept my apologies for the delay in responding.

Total sales of the full register was £5273.90, breakdown in years is as follows:

2016/2017 - £1853.00

2017/2018 - £1700.40

2018/2019 - £5273.90

These were sold to Experian, Equifax/Crediva/Equiniti/Callcredit

There was one sale of the open register for 2018/2019 totalling £59.00. This was sold to the Muslim Public Affairs Committee UK.