FOI reference: FOI-2026-3523
You asked
On 2nd April you released an updated version of "Electoral registration statistics for the UK".
This dataset did not included local authority statistics - the reason you gave was
"The reason for this is that the software systems available to LAs to supply the data to ONS had not all been updated to reflect legislative changes that have affected who is allowed to vote in these elections. Rather than publish LA statistics that were partial or inaccurate, we liaised with key data users and reached the decision not to publish this year."
I would like to request any local authority statistics that you do hold, even if they are partial or inaccurate.
We said
Thank for your request.
Electoral registration statistics is the annual ONS product that presents the number of people registered to vote in the UK, based on the electoral registers published by local authorities, usually in December each year. Our publication usually contains statistics for:
1) local authorities (LAs), covering those registered to vote in local elections
2) Westminster parliamentary constituencies, covering those registered to vote for elections to the UK Parliament
In the most recent publication (statistics for December 2025), we did not include electoral registration statistics for local authorities because some of the source data do not reflect legislative changes that affect who is allowed to vote, meaning the counts may be inaccurate.
These legislative changes are that:
in 2021, the franchise for elections to Welsh local authorities was extended to reduce the minimum voting age to 16 years and to extend the voting rights of foreign nationals; this was done to align with the voting age for elections to the Welsh Parliament (Senedd)
in 2024, the franchise for local government elections in England also changed, reducing the number of EU citizens who were eligible to vote
More information is available in our Electoral registration statistics, UK QMI.
By 2025, the software systems available to LAs to supply the data to the ONS had not all been updated to take account of this change. In response, the ONS agreed that our Electoral registration statistics for the UK would contain December 2025 statistics for Westminster parliamentary constituencies only, which were unaffected by the legislative changes at local level.
We have published the figures we hold at local level in Electoral registrations, 1 December 2025: local authorities. These figures do not represent the recent changes in legislation on who is eligible to vote and therefore are subject to the quality issues described above. These are not accredited official statistics.