Explanatory note

Under section 10 of the Representation of the People Act 1983 (as substituted by Schedule 1 to the Representation of the People Act 2000) each registration officer is required to conduct an annual canvass (by reference to residence on 15th October in that year) in his registration area to ascertain the persons who are entitled to be or remain registered as parliamentary or local government electors in that area.

These Regulations prescribe a revised form for the purposes of that canvass. The form takes account of the fact that ten new States acceded to the European Union in 2004. It makes provision for their citizens (as well as citizens of other Member States) who reside in a registration area, to be included in the register of local government electors for that area. In addition, regulation 3 and Part II of the Schedule to the Regulations prescribe a new form of words about the full and edited versions of the register, to be included as part of the application for registration form provided by registration officers.

The Regulations also revoke the Representation of the People (Form of Canvass) (Scotland) Regulations 2003, which had previously prescribed the form of canvass and the form of words about the two versions of the register.