Nick Raynsford

The government has announced plans to allow law enforcement and credit reference agencies access to the electoral register.

Local government minister, Nick Raynsford, said that in future two versions of the electoral roll would be published, one allowing limited access and another that can be sold to anyone.

Electors will be able to opt out of the second roll to limit the amount of junk mail they receive.

"The approach we are adopting strikes a balance between the individual elector's right to privacy and the needs of others to receive the data to carry out their functions," said Raynsford.

"The full register will be available for electoral purposes, for law enforcement and crime prevention and for other purposes where there is a strong public interest in preserving availability.

"These include checking identity for credit purposes. The edited register will be available for sale to anyone for any purpose."

The government will be consulting on its plans until June 13, with a final version of the regulations planned to come into operation for the annual canvass of electors this October.

The government's consultation document notes that copies of the electoral register have been available for purchase in one form or another since at least 1832.

The need for reform followed the November 2001 Robertson judgement, in which an elector challenged the fact that he could not register to vote without his details being made available for sale.

This position was found to have breached both his human rights and data protection regulations, and the new reforms are intended to address that situation.

The government intends to make access to records available to financial institutions as they face obligations under the 1993 Money Laundering Regulations to verify the identity of their clients.

"If institutions were denied access to the full register to make these checks and had to rely upon lower quality information, there would be less compliance with the Money Laundering Regulations," argues the government's consultation document.