Agenda item

Joint Report of the Director of Public Relations and the Electoral Services Manager.

Members received a joint report of the Director of Public Relations and the Electoral Services Manager on City of London Ward Elections. A member queried whether enough emphasis was being given to contacting large businesses to establish whether they were not registered for the business vote as a matter of policy or through not being aware of their entitlement to register electors. Whilst she welcomed the efforts to register electors outlined within the report she noted that it was important that an appropriate point of contact was identified within each business with whom to promote voter registration effectively. Another member queried whether it was necessary to provide the Electoral Services Team with more resources in order to increase the level of voter registration.

            The Director of Public Relations replied that work was routinely undertaken to work with large businesses within the City to ensure they were aware of the business vote available to them, but he accepted there was scope for officers to make more effort in identifying appropriate points of contact within each business and ensuring this information was kept up to date. Regarding the level of resources available to the Electoral Services Team, he noted that three members of staff were employed full time in addition to temporary staff who were employed each year to conduct residential ward canvasses. He noted that the key question was ensuring the overall headline number of voters registered was consistently maintained each year.

            A member commented that it was important not to focus on numbers alone. Instead it was important to be aware of the potential perception of the City Corporation being accountable only to ‘big business’ through the business vote. Another member agreed, and noted that it was important to ensure that business voters represented an accurate demographic of the overall workforce.      

            Another member argued that the business vote was an important factor that differentiated the City Corporation from other local authorities and it therefore should not be regarded negatively. He agreed that it was important to ensure that business electors were a fair reflection of the composition of the wider workforce.

            In response to a question from a member, the Director of Public Relations confirmed that companies and residents moving into completed major developments within the City were contacted to include them on the ward registers.

            A member reiterated the point that it was important to ensure particular individuals in appropriate roles were identified as points of contact within large organisations to ensure electoral correspondence was not lost or discounted.           

            The Director of Public Relations agreed to ensure more emphasis was placed on identifying appropriate points of contact, but noted that efforts to do so could be complicated by factors such as the time of year. He added that it was sometimes the case that businesses were unwilling to engage as they regarded the local services provided by the City Corporation was excellent.

RECEIVED