The Electoral Register: What It Is and Who Can See It

The electoral register, sometimes called the electoral roll, lists the names and addresses of everyone who is registered to vote. In Great Britain it is kept locally by electoral registration offices based at councils; Northern Ireland has a single Electoral Office. There is no official website on which the public can search the register by name or by address. To find out whether you are on it, you ask your electoral registration office.

This guide describes the rules as set out on GOV.UK in November 2026. It is an explanation of how the system works, not legal advice.

Two versions: the full register and the open register

The register exists in two versions, and the difference between them explains most questions about who can look people up.

	Full register	Open register
Who is on it	Everyone registered to vote, apart from the details of anonymous electors	Everyone on the full register who has not opted out
What it is for	Running elections, plus a few purposes set out in law, such as detecting crime, calling people for jury service and checking credit applications	Not used for elections
Who can get it	Supply and use are limited by law; copies go to bodies such as political parties and credit reference agencies	Any person, company or organisation can buy it
Can you opt out?	No	Yes

The open register is an extract of the full one and is also known as the edited register. Your name and address are included in it unless you ask for them to be removed.

Can you search the electoral register online?

Not through any official service. People often look for a way to search the electoral register by address or to find someone on it, and it is worth being clear about what exists.

• The full register cannot be searched online by the public. It can be inspected in person, under supervision. GOV.UK advises contacting your electoral registration office (or the Electoral Office for Northern Ireland), which will tell you where the current register for the area can be viewed; it is often available in libraries. Each register covers only its local area, so this is not a way to search the whole country.
• Commercial people-search websites use the open register. Because anyone can buy the open register for any purpose, some companies buy it and sell searchable access online for a fee. These services are not official. They can only show people whose details were on the open register, so anyone who opted out, or who is registered anonymously, is not included from that source.
• Credit reference agencies receive the full register, because the law allows it to be used for checking credit applications. That is a restricted use; it does not make the full register available to the public.

For family or local history, GOV.UK points to the National Archives website, which has information on historical registers.

How to check whether you are registered

In England, Scotland and Wales, contact your local electoral registration office and ask. GOV.UK has a postcode search that gives the contact details of the right office. The office can also help with registering and with opting in or out of the open register. In Northern Ireland, GOV.UK directs people to the "Am I Registered" service run by the Electoral Office for Northern Ireland, which checks your own registration.

You normally need to register only once, and again only if you change your name, address or nationality. Being on the register is also the first step for anyone who wants a postal vote.

How to opt out of the open register

You can have your details removed from the open register. GOV.UK gives two routes:

1. use the online register to vote service, which works even if you are already registered; or
2. contact your electoral registration office in England, Scotland or Wales, or the Electoral Office for Northern Ireland.

Opting out has no effect on your right to vote. It affects only the open register: your details stay on the full register, and you cannot opt out of that.

Anonymous registration

People whose safety, or the safety of someone in their household, would be at risk if their name and address appeared on the register can apply to register anonymously. They have to provide evidence, such as a court order or an attestation from an authorised person. An anonymous elector's details do not appear on either version of the register, and they can still vote.

How the register is kept up to date

The annual canvass

From July each year, electoral registration offices in Great Britain contact households to check that the details on the register are correct. This is the annual canvass. There is no annual canvass in Northern Ireland. The revised register has been published on 1 December each year since 2001, and it can be updated during the year as people register or move.

The duty to respond

If an electoral registration officer asks you to register and you are eligible, you must do so. GOV.UK states that not registering can lead to a fine of up to £1,000, although there is no fine where a person has a valid reason, such as a long stay in hospital.

Individual electoral registration

Until 2014 registration in Great Britain was done by household: one person filled in a form for everyone living at the address. Individual electoral registration, introduced under the Electoral Registration and Administration Act 2013, made each person responsible for their own entry. It began in England and Wales on 10 June 2014 and in Scotland on 19 September 2014, after the independence referendum. Northern Ireland had moved to individual registration in 2002. The same system allows people to register online. Applicants are asked for their National Insurance number, though it is still possible to register without one.

Some people may register at two addresses, such as students with a home and a term-time address. This does not give anyone two votes in the same election.

Other records linked to the register

After an election a "marked register" records who voted, though not how they voted. It is kept for a year. Proving who you are at the polling station is a separate matter from being on the register; see voter ID in the UK.