Voters to be automatically registered in Wales

Voters in Wales would be automatically included on the electoral register under Welsh government plans.

This would apply to elections for the Welsh Parliament and local councils.

The government says 400,000 people in Wales are not registered to vote.

Mick Antoniw, the minister behind the plans, said the statistics had "shocked" him. The moves are separate to plans to expand the number of Senedd members by the next election in 2026.

The automatic registration proposals were backed by Plaid Cymru, but the Welsh Conservatives warned they could cause "unnecessary confusion".

Meanwhile, the minister said that he has not ruled out giving voters the right to recall politicians if they commit certain offences.

"There are people not on the register who should be entitled to vote, whose opinions and voices are not being taken into account when an election takes place and that is something we want to address," said Mr Antoniw, who is the counsel general and the Welsh government's most senior legal adviser.

• More politicians in Senedd could cost £18m a year

• Early local election voting to tackle apathy

• 'I always vote - this year I didn't'

The Senedd member for Pontypridd said that the changes would not force people to vote, but would put an onus on politicians and political parties to persuade them to.

He also explained how the new system would work.

"We will look at all the different data sources where people are already registered. such as the NHS and Department for Work and Pensions, and we would pull all that information onto a digitised electoral register," he said.

"And once you have that register it opens many other opportunities for the future - even the possibility of voting online, although we are not there yet.

"This is all about making it accessible, making it easier for people to participate in our democratic institutions."

Mr Antoniw hopes that automatic registration would increase turnout as Senedd elections - it has never exceeded 50%.

Figures from the Electoral Commission in 2022 showed that up to 404,000 people were not registered or not correctly registered for local government elections and up to 349,000 for parliamentary elections.

Those figures were an improvement on statistics gathered four years previously.

Currently there are 60 Senedd members.

The Welsh government previously announced plans for automatic enrolment trial schemes last October - they form part of the Elections and Elected Bodies Bill, being tabled in the Senedd on 2 October.

Mr Antoniw is also the minister in charge of planned reforms to the Senedd, which were published on Monday.

The current bill contains no provision for the recall of MSs, as is the case with MPs in Westminster.

It means that constituents have the right to sign a petition to force a by-election if their MP has committed certain offences.

But, speaking to BBC Radio Wales Breakfast, Mr Antoniw appeared to open the door to a Senedd recall system.

"I am sure that will be raised during the scrutiny process and then we will have to address that, so I think it is something that will take place," he said.

"It will be discussed and we will have to consider whether it is through this legislation or through one of the other pieces of legislation that we are bringing that forward."

'Unnecessary confusion'

Darren Millar, who speaks for the Welsh Conservatives on constitutional matters, said registering to vote was "already simple and millions of people in Wales manage to do so every year without any issue whatsoever, so I fail to understand why these changes are necessary".

"Changing voter registration for some elections and not others could also cause unnecessary confusion.

"Automatic registration for Senedd and local elections could also lead to voters incorrectly assuming they are registered to vote in all elections and cause them to miss out on voting.

"There is also a risk of people being incorrectly registered to vote in more than one place."

But Plaid Cymru's constitutional spokesperson, former party leader Adam Price, said Plaid was "fully supportive of all measures that make it as easy as possible for people to vote, thereby strengthening our democracy".

"The automatic registration of voters would be an important first step in the work that is needed by Welsh government to tackle voter disengagement and increase voter turnout - work that is needed to counterbalance the actions of Westminster, who have brought in Voter ID - a move that has been shown to disproportionately impact Welsh voters."