The UK Government has passed a new Act – The People’s Act 2000 – that will affect availability and access to future UK Electoral Roll data sets, collected during and after 2001. This data will not become due for release within AFD Names & Numbers until Quarter 3, 2002, so there is no impact on current users of Names & Numbers – and will not be for some time.

Stop Press:    Latest information (July 2001) is that the Government have announced that changes will now not come into effect for Electoral Roll data collected during the Autumn of 2001, and no decision has been taken as to when the changes will actually come into effect.  It can now be assumed that there will be no impact on Names & Numbers until at least Quarter 3, 2003.

The new Act does not affect access to or use of historic Electoral Roll information. The Peoples Act 2000 does make changes to the availability of data in the UK Electoral Roll (but not other jurisdictions in the British Isles). The Home Office has confirmed that data collected will be made available in the public domain as two differing products – a standard Electoral Roll available only for the purposes of voting, prevention of crime and credit reference, and a “Commercial” Roll, which will be available for any other purpose.

The Electoral Registration forms may eventually contain an “Opt-Out” which will enable a household to be excluded from the commercial roll. There are many aspects of the new legislation – and its outworking - which have still not yet been finalised, and it is a widely held opinion that it will take several years before a workable, common sense system of collecting and distributing Electoral Roll data will be established. No one is able to predict the level of “Opt -Outs” that are likely to occur. Householders are being advised that with the increasing use of AFD Names & Numbers and similar data products within online and automated verification processes, that opting out of the Commercial Electoral Roll may have seriously adverse effects on their ability to obtain access to products, services and finance.

AFD have been planning for these changes for some time, and have taken steps to ensure the highest possible quality of data within Names & Numbers after these changes come into place (ie after 2003). It is likely that, by using historical Electoral Roll data records, the new Commercial Electoral Roll, along with the other data sets – like Royal Mail Data, Telephone Subscriber information and commercial data sets, the impact on Names & Numbers will be minimal.

AFD are committed to providing the very best and most comprehensive data within Names & Numbers – but we have the highest respect for the laws of the land – and ensure that all the data within our products is properly licensed, and used within the correct legal framework. As more information on this process becomes available, this information memorandum will be updated.