Who we are

This website is hosted and maintained by Civica Election Services Limited, trading as Civica Election Services (CES), of 33 Clarendon Road, London N8 0NW.

This website is provided by CES in its role as a data processor. CES processes personal data only on behalf of and in accordance with the documented instructions of the relevant Local Authority Electoral Registration Officer (ERO) / Returning Officer (RO), who is the data controller for the purposes of electoral registration and election administration.

The data controller is the Local Authority Electoral Registration Officer / Returning Officer for whom this online household response service is being administered by Civica Election Services. The data controller determines the purposes and manner for which personal data is collected and processed using this website.

Details of the data controller's privacy information and contact details, including where applicable their Data Protection Officer, can usually be found on the relevant local authority's website.

CES can be contacted in its capacity as data processor via: [email protected].

If you contact CES about a data protection matter that is the responsibility of the data controller, your enquiry may need to be forwarded to the relevant Local Authority Electoral Registration Officer / Returning Officer.

How is information gathered on this site used?

The Local Authority Electoral Registration Officer / Returning Officer collects the personal data you provide on this website for the purpose of:

• maintaining the register of electors
• preparing for and conducting elections and referendums and
• helping to ensure that eligible individuals are able to exercise their right to vote

You need to be registered to vote in order to vote in any election or referendum for which you are eligible. The Local Authority Electoral Registration Officer has a duty to maintain a complete and accurate register throughout the year.

The purpose of this site is to enable you to provide information about who lives at an address within the relevant local authority's electoral area.

The data controller will only collect the personal data needed in order to carry out these functions and to comply with its legal obligations.

Personal information may also be processed to determine what is most effective about this website, to help CES and the data controller identify ways to improve the service, keep it secure and ensure it operates properly. If data is used for any additional purpose, this will be explained at the point the personal information is collected.

No automated decision-making or profiling is carried out through this service.

What is the legal basis for processing this data?

The lawful basis for processing personal data through this website is:

• Article 6(1)(c) UK GDPR – processing is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation to which the data controller is subject

The Local Authority Electoral Registration Officer / Returning Officer is required to comply with electoral legislation, including:

• the Representation of the People Act 1983
• the Electoral Registration and Administration Act 2013 and
• the Representation of the People Regulations 2001

These legal obligations ensure that eligible individuals are registered to vote in any election or referendum for which they are entitled to vote.

The law makes it compulsory, in certain circumstances, to provide information requested by the Local Authority Electoral Registration Officer for inclusion in the full register.

The Local Authority Electoral Registration Officer / Returning Officer keeps records about potential and registered electors, candidates and their agents and staff employed at elections. These records may be kept in paper form or on secure, purpose-built computer systems.

What information is gathered via this site?

Information on this site is gathered in two ways: directly (for example, where you enter information into the website) and indirectly (for example, through the technology used to operate and secure the site).

The information collected directly on this website may include:

• your name
• your nationality
• information about the other occupants in your home
• whether you are under 16/17 or over 76
• your telephone number
• your email address and
• whether you have chosen to opt out of the open version of the electoral register

Examples of information collected indirectly include:

• your internet protocol (IP) address, which is automatically collected and may be recorded in internet access logs
• the date and time when you access the site and
• technical information needed to keep the service secure and functioning correctly

The data controller and CES apply the principles of data minimisation, purpose limitation and security when processing personal data via this site.

Cookies

This website may use cookies, which are small text files stored on your computer or device when you visit a website.

These cookies are used to:

• allow the website to work properly
• enable secure navigation from one page to the next once you have logged in
• help keep the website secure and
• assist CES and the data controller in understanding how users interact with the website so that it can be improved

This site uses Session Cookies, which simply allow secure navigation from one page to the next once you have logged in.

The Session Cookie is:

• a first party cookie (that is, it is only placed by CES websites) and
• temporary (that is, it is deleted when your session ends)

An example of a Session Cookie used on this site is: ASP.NET_SessionId

To the extent cookies used on this site are strictly necessary for the operation and security of the service, they do not require consent under the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR).

Who will your information be shared with?

The information you provide is held in electoral registers which are managed by the Local Authority Electoral Registration Officer. Using the information received, the Local Authority Electoral Registration Officer keeps two registers:

• the full electoral register and
• the open (edited) register

The full register is published once a year and is updated every month. It can only be supplied to certain people and organisations where the law permits this. These may include:

• the British Library
• the UK Statistics Authority
• the Electoral Commission
• the Boundary Commission for England
• the Jury Summoning Bureau
• elected representatives, including Members of Parliament and local councillors
• the Police and Crime Commissioner
• candidates standing for elections
• local and national political parties
• your local council
• parish and community councils
• police forces and the National Crime Agency
• a public library or local authority archive service
• government departments or bodies
• credit reference agencies
• the National Fraud Initiative and
• other Electoral Registration Officers and Returning Officers

Your information may also be disclosed to local authorities' contracted printers and other service providers where this is necessary and lawful for the administration of elections and electoral registration, and where appropriate safeguards and contractual controls are in place.

It is a criminal offence for anyone who has a copy of the full register to unlawfully pass information from it to others who do not have a lawful reason to see it.

Anyone may inspect the full electoral register, but only under strict legal conditions:

• inspection of the register must take place under supervision
• extracts from the register may only be taken by handwritten notes
• information taken from the register must not be used for direct marketing purposes, unless it has also been published in the open register and
• anyone who fails to observe these conditions may be committing a criminal offence and may be liable to a penalty of up to £5,000 upon conviction

The open register contains the same information as the full register, but it is not used for elections or referendums. It is updated and published every month and may be sold to any person, organisation or company for a wide range of purposes. It may be used by businesses and charities for checking names and address details, and users of the register may include direct marketing firms and online directory firms.

You can choose whether or not to have your personal details included in the open register. Your details will be included unless you ask for them to be removed. Removing your details from the open register will not affect your right to vote.

How long will we keep this information?

The Local Authority Electoral Registration Officer / Returning Officer is required to process personal data in connection with maintaining the register of electors and preparing for and conducting elections.

Your personal data will be retained and updated in accordance with:

• legal obligations
• statutory retention periods and
• the records management and retention arrangements of the relevant data controller

Upon publication of the full register, or an update to it, information contained in the register may enter the public domain in accordance with statutory publication requirements and cannot always be retrospectively removed from circulation where it has already lawfully been disclosed or published.

CES will only process and retain personal data for as long as necessary to provide the service under its contractual arrangements with the relevant data controller and in accordance with applicable legal and regulatory requirements.

Access to your details and your rights

Under UK data protection law, you may have the right to:

• request access to personal data held about you
• request rectification of inaccurate personal data
• request completion of incomplete personal data
• request restriction of processing in certain circumstances
• object to processing in certain circumstances and
• complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO)

Please note that some rights may be limited or may not apply where personal data is processed in order to comply with legal obligations relating to electoral registration and the conduct of elections.

Any requests relating to your personal data should normally be made to the data controller, that is, the Local Authority Electoral Registration Officer / Returning Officer or the relevant local authority on whose behalf CES is providing this website.

If the information held about you is inaccurate, you have the right to have it corrected. You also have the right to request completion of incomplete data.

You may also ask the data controller to stop or restrict the processing of your personal data in certain circumstances. Such requests or objections should be submitted to the data controller directly.

You may contact the CES Data Protection Officer via [email protected] but please be aware that if CES is not the appropriate party to deal with the request, it may need to be forwarded to the relevant data controller.

Complaints

If you are not happy with the way the data controller responds to your request or objection or with the way your personal data is handled, you have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner's Office: https://ico.org.uk/concerns/handling

International transfers

Personal data processed through this website is not intended to be transferred outside the United Kingdom.

What security controls are in place?

The data controller and CES are committed to ensuring that your information is secure when you visit and use this site and to maintaining your privacy when doing so.

CES has physical and organisational security measures in place to help protect personal data against accidental or unlawful destruction, loss, alteration, unauthorised disclosure, or access. These measures are designed in line with Article 32 UK GDPR and include physical security controls at CES facilities, secure hosting arrangements, role-based access controls, authentication controls, hardware and application firewalls, intrusion detection and monitoring systems, SSL/TLS encryption for data in transit, audit logging and system monitoring, as well as staff confidentiality obligations and regular staff training in data protection and information security.

Copyright © Civica Election Services Limited. All rights reserved.

Unless otherwise stated, the contents of this site including, but not limited to, the text and images contained herein and their arrangement are the property of CES. All trademarks used or referred to on this website are the property of their respective owners. Nothing contained in this site shall be construed as conferring by implication, estoppel, or otherwise, any licence or right to any copyright, patent, trademark, or other proprietary interest of CES or any third party. This site and the content provided on it, including but not limited to graphic images, audio, video, HTML code, buttons, and text, may not be copied, reproduced, republished, uploaded, posted, transmitted or distributed in any way without the prior written consent of CES, except that you may download, display, and print one copy of the materials on a single computer solely for your personal, non-commercial use, provided that you do not modify the material in any way and you keep intact all copyright, trademark and other proprietary notices.

Updates to this notice

This notice may be updated from time to time to reflect legal, regulatory or operational changes.

Last updated: June 2026

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