Electoral Registers Act 1949
| Jurisdiction | UK Non-devolved |
| Citation | 1949 c. 86 |
Electoral Registers Act , 1949
(12, 13 & 14 Geo. 6) CHAPTER 86
An Act to abolish autumn registers of parliamentary and local government electors, and for purposes connected therewith.
[16th December 1949]
Be it enacted by the King's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:—
1 Abolition of autumn registers of parliamentary and local government electors.
(1) In Great Britain, registers of parliamentary and local government electors, and in Northern Ireland, registers of parliamentary electors, shall be prepared and published once a year instead of twice a year.
(2) In Great Britain, registers of parliamentary and local government electors shall be published not later than the fifteenth day of March, and registers published in any year shall be used for parliamentary and local government elections at which the date fixed for the poll falls within the period of twelve months beginning with the sixteenth day of March in that year.
(3) In Northern Ireland, registers of parliamentary electors shall be published not later than the first day of April, and registers published in any year shall be used for parliamentary elections at which the date fixed for the poll falls within the period of twelve months beginning with the second day of April in that year.
(4) In any year—
(a ) the twentieth day of November shall, as regards England and Wales, be the qualifying date for a parliamentary or local government election at which the date fixed for the poll falls within the period of twelve months beginning with the sixteenth day of March in the next following year;
(b ) the first day of December shall, as regards Scotland, be the qualifying date for any such election as aforesaid; and
(c ) the thirty-first day of October shall, as regards Northern Ireland, be the qualifying date for a parliamentary election at which the date fixed for the poll falls within the period of twelve months beginning with the second day of April in the next following year.
(5) The Secretary of State shall have power, exercisable by statutory instrument which shall not come into force unless or until it is approved by resolution of each House of Parliament, to make regulations altering the interval in Northern Ireland between the qualifying date and the date of publication of the registers of parliamentary electors by changing either date, and any such regulations may make such consequential provisions (including the modification of any enactment contained in this or any other Act) as may appear to the Secretary of State to be necessary.
(6) If any part of a register is not published within the time required by this section, then until the day following that on which it is published the corresponding part of the previous register (whether prepared before or after the passing of this Act) shall continue in use; and where any part of the register used at an election is a part continued in force by this subsection, the Representation of the People Acts (including this Act) shall have effect in relation to the election and the area to which that part relates as if the qualifying date by reference to which that part was prepared were the qualifying date for the election.
(7) This section shall have effect with respect to registers to be published in the year nineteen hundred and fifty and subsequent years and elections for which registers to be so published are to be used.
2 Voting rights of certain persons coming of age during currency of register.
(1) A person who is not of full age on the qualifying date for a parliamentary or local government election in a constituency or electoral area in Great Britain, being an election at which the date fixed for the poll falls within the period beginning with the second day of October in any year and ending with the next following fifteenth day of March, shall, if he is of full age on the fifteenth day of June in that year and is otherwise entitled so to do, be entitled to vote as an elector at that election, and the reference in subsection (1) of section eight of the principal Act (which relates to registration rights) to persons who may be entitled to vote as electors at parliamentary elections for which any register is to be used, and the reference in subsection (2) of that section to persons who may be entitled to vote as electors at local government elections for which any register is to be used shall, in the application of those subsections to Great Britain, be construed accordingly.
(2) A person who is not of full age on the qualifying date for a parliamentary election in a constituency in Northern Ireland, being an election at which the date fixed for the poll falls within the period beginning with the second day of October in any year and ending with the next following first day of April, shall, if he is of full age on the thirtieth day of April in that year and is otherwise entitled so to do, be entitled to vote as an elector at that election, and the reference in subsection (1) of section eight of the principal Act to persons who may be entitled to vote as electors at parliamentary elections for which any register is to be used shall, in the application of that subsection to Northern Ireland, be construed accordingly.
(3) Where, by virtue of subsection (6) of section one of this Act, any part of the register to be used at such a parliamentary or local government election as is mentioned in subsection (1) of this section falls to be used at an election at which the date fixed for the poll falls after the expiration of the period so mentioned, the said subsection (1) shall, as regards a person registered by virtue thereof in that part of the register, apply in relation to the election as it applies in relation to an election at which the date fixed for the poll falls within that period; and where, by virtue of the said subsection (6), any part of the register to be used at such a parliamentary election as is mentioned in subsection (2) of this section falls to be used at an...
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