Political Parties and Elections Act 2009

Data schemes

35 Schemes for provision of data to registration officers

(1) The Secretary of State may by order made by statutory instrument make provision (referred to below as a “scheme”) authorising or requiring specified persons to provide to a specified registration officer, for the purpose mentioned in subsection (2), information contained in records kept by those persons.

(2) The purpose is assisting the registration officer to meet the registration objectives and, in particular, assisting the officer—

(a) to ascertain to what extent those objectives are being met, and

(b) to determine what steps should be taken for meeting them.

(3) A scheme may authorise or require information to be provided at specified times or in specified circumstances.

(4) A scheme may not authorise or require information to be provided by a person other than—

(a) a local or public authority, or

(b) a person providing services to, or authorised to exercise any function of, a local or public authority.

(5) An order under this section may include more than one scheme.

(6) An order under this section has effect despite any statutory or other restriction on the disclosure of information (but may not permit disclosure in breach of subsection (7)).

(7) Information provided to a registration officer under an order under this section may not be disclosed to a person other than one to whom the officer may delegate his or her functions, except—

(a) for the purpose mentioned in subsection (2), or

(b) for the purposes of any criminal or civil proceedings.

(8) A person who discloses information in breach of subsection (7) is guilty of an offence and liable—

(a) on conviction on indictment, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years, or to a fine, or to both;

(b) on summary conviction in England and Wales and Scotland, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 12 months, or to a fine not exceeding the statutory maximum, or to both;

(c) on summary conviction in Northern Ireland, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 6 months, or to a fine not exceeding the statutory maximum, or to both.

(9) An order under this section may contain incidental, supplemental, transitional or saving provision.

(10) An order under this section must not be made unless a draft of the statutory instrument containing it has been laid before, and approved by a resolution of, each House of Parliament.

(11) In this section “specified” means specified in an order under this section.

36 Schemes under section 35: proposals, consultation and evaluation

(1) A scheme may be included in an order under section 35 only if a proposal has been submitted to the Secretary of State by the registration officer to whom the scheme relates and the scheme gives effect to the proposal, either—

(a) without modification, or

(b) with modifications suggested by the Secretary of State and agreed to by the officer.

(2) The Secretary of State may not make an order under section 35 without first consulting—

(a) the Electoral Commission;

(b) any person authorised or required by the order to provide information to a registration officer;

(c) the Information Commissioner.

(3) An order under section 35 must specify a date (the “evaluation date”) for each scheme included in the order.

The Electoral Commission must prepare a report on the operation of each scheme and, no later than the evaluation date, give a copy of it—

(a) to the registration officer concerned, and

(b) to the Secretary of State.

(4) A report under subsection (3) must set out the terms of the scheme and must contain—

(a) a description of the scheme;

(b) an assessment of the matters set out in subsection (5);

(c) anything else specified in the order under section 35.

(5) The matters are—

(a) the extent to which the scheme has achieved the purpose mentioned in section 35(2);

(b) whether there was any objection to the scheme, and if so how much;

(c) how easy the scheme was to administer;

(d) the extent to which the scheme resulted in savings of time and costs, or the opposite.

(6) The registration officer concerned—

(a) must give the Electoral Commission whatever assistance they reasonably require in connection with the preparation of the report;

(b) must publish the report in whatever way the officer thinks appropriate.

(7) In this section “scheme” has the same meaning as in section 35.