Roll out the opt-out

The Electoral Roll represents a vital source of personal data for those who combat financial crime. However, data protection concerns threaten to diminish severely its usefulness to commercial organisations. Sue Grossey reports.

The Electoral Roll (ER) is the UK’s largest public register of personal data. That said, it does not cover the entire population – it includes only those who are eligible to vote and who have registered. There is a statutory requirement for those who are eligible to vote to register each year but this is very rarely enforced. Despite these shortcomings, the ER (which lists simply the first name, surname, address and postcode of each registrant) forms the core of nearly every database in the country.