No vote without a National Insurance number

GOVERNMENT IGNORES THAT THERE ARE MILLIONS MORE NI NUMBERS THAN VOTERS

In yet another instance of right-hand-not-knowing-what-left-hand-is-doing government, The Daily Telegraph reports today that the right to vote is going to be linked to people’s National Insurance numbers in future. After July, everybody wishing to keep their entitlement to vote will be required to give their signature, date of birth and National Insurance number, to be recorded in an Individual Elector Registration.

Although supposedly intended to cut down on fraud, there is concern not only that the information might be sold but that it is “the perfect kit for identity fraud”. We should not forget the government’s form when it comes to safeguarding our records. The Ministry of Justice lost the records, including NI numbers, of 45,000 people in 2007, while the personal data of over four million people was mislaid by assorted government departments in the year to April 2008.

Even more pertinent, though, is the information given in a Parliamentary answer in 2007. The Department for Work and Pensions admitted then that it had nine million National Insurance numbers which it could not connect with real people. That is 20% of the adult population of the UK. And yet it is the connection to National Insurance numbers that the Government thinks will help cut electoral fraud, almost all of which is, in any case, linked to postal voting.

Another triumph for joined-up thinking.

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