The court ruling enforcing data protection rules on the sale of
electoral rolls may blight government plans to create a national
electoral register necessary to enable online voting.
A retired accountant had argued that the sale of his details by the
City of Wakefield Metropolitan District Council breached his rights
under the Data Protection and Human Rights Acts.
A national electoral register connecting more than 400 local
electoral registers is due to be in place by early next year.
The ruling has sent shockwaves through local government. If members
of the public do not want their details passed on to the private
sector, the value of a national electoral register would be
considerably reduced.
Banks and credit reference agencies rely heavily on electoral roll
records for dealing with customers.
"I can't see how you can deliver guarantees of income streams to
the suppliers tendering for the national electoral register
contracts," said Robert James, an address information consultant.
"How can you sell the data when it's of an unknown quality?"
The Improvement and Development Agency, which is overseeing the
national electoral register through its subsidiary Local Government
Information House, refused to comment.