Edited electoral register could be abolished

Fundraising | Celina Ribeiro | 11 May 2010

Charities could be denied access to the edited electoral register, used to target and verify donors, according to the Institute of Fundraising.

The Institute is concerned that the Ministry of Justice, which closed a public consultation into the use of the edited electoral register in February, is set to ignore sector considerations and abolish the register entirely.

Director of policy and campaigns Louise Richards told Fundraising, “The indications coming from the Ministry of Justice is that they’re ignoring responses put in by people like ourselves and just going down the road of listening to the school of thought which says the thing should be abolished.”

She said that the Institute is concerned that the changes may get passed via the back door, without further debate.

“The only people who seem to be pushing for its abolition is the Association of Electoral Administrators,” she said.

She said that the Institute’s members and PFRA believe the register is essential to charities being able to target direct mail more effectively, clean up databases and validate donor details.

She said that accusations that the register allows for increases in cold mailing were inaccurate. “That’s not the main use of it,” she said. “If it wasn’t there, it could actually increase junk mail.”

The Ministry of Justice, meanwhile, is still limited by the rules of purdah in discussing developments. A spokesman for the ministry could only say: “all of the views put forward will be taken into account before considering next steps.”

Directory: Institute of Fundraising | The Public Fundraising Regulatory Association (PFRA)

Comments

[Cancel] | Reply to:

Name *

Email *

Organisation

Job Title

Comments *

Verification *

* Please read our Community Standards

Close »

Community Standards

The civilsociety.co.uk community and comments board is intended as a platform for informed and civilised debate.

We hope to encourage a broad range of views, however, there are standards that we expect commentators to uphold. We reserve the right to delete or amend any comments that do not adhere to these standards.

We welcome:

Robust but respectful debate
Strongly held opinions
Intelligent relevant discussion
The sharing of relevant experiences
New participants

We will not publish:

Rude, threatening, offensive, obscene or abusive language, or links to such material
Links to commercial organisations or spam postings. The comments board is not an advertising platform
The posting of contact details for yourself or others
Comments intended for malicious purpose or mindless abuse
Comments purporting to be from another person or organisation under false pretences
Gratuitous criticism, commentary or self-promotion
Any material which breaches copyright or privacy laws, or could be considered libellous
The use of the comments board for the pursuit or extension of personal disputes

Be aware:

Views expressed on the comments board are left at users’ discretion and are in no way views held or supported by Civil Society Media
Comments left by others may not be accurate, do not rely on them as fact
You may be misunderstood - sarcasm and humour can easily be taken out of context, try to be clear

Please:

Enjoy the opportunity to express your opinion and respect the right of others to express theirs
Confine your remarks to issues rather than personalities

Together we can keep our community a polite, respectful and intelligent platform for discussion.