Voters in Wales to be automatically registered for 2027 council elections

Wales will introduce a system of automatic voter registration in time for next year's council elections, under Welsh government plans.

The Plaid Cymru administration has endorsed a plan begun by Labour ministers aiming to reduce the 400,000 people not registered to vote, after it was tested in four council areas.

A review by the Electoral Commission found the plan - which involves merging different sets of data to find addresses - could boost electoral registers but can be time consuming for council staff.

The scheme will cost more than £2m in the first year, and would register voters for council and Senedd elections but not for Westminster.

Council elections are scheduled to take place in May 2027, while the next Senedd election is due in 2030.

Sian Gwenllian, local government minister, said: "Wales is leading the way on automatic voter registration in the UK.

"These regulations will help improve both the accuracy and completeness of the local government electoral register and are an important step towards strengthening our democracy."

The previous Labour administration had wanted automatic voter registration up and running in time for the Senedd election, but could not get it ready in time.

Pilots in Carmarthenshire, Newport, Gwynedd and Powys added 14,500 new voters to the local register.

In the last three areas, an automated system was used, checked manually, to identify potential electors.

Sources could include council tax records, library data, or housing information. Electors would be offered the chance to opt out if they did not want to be added to the register.

The review said: "These pilots suggest that automatic registration could be rolled out in Wales and could have a positive impact on the completeness of the electoral registers."

But it added that the data matching process "can be time consuming and labour intensive with significant manual work required after the automated matching".

Cost estimates in the first year run to £2.5m, with £1.5m going on upgrading the software required, £965,000 on funding for councils and £100,000 for the Electoral Commission.

Council costs include an expected £748,000 for staffing.

The Welsh government has tabled regulations which need approval by the Senedd and said it expects costs to decrease as the accuracy of the register improves year on year.

Gwenllian said: "Subject to the will of the Senedd, these regulations will come into force in the autumn."