Electoral Roll should not be sold - Black

12.00.00am UTC (GMT +0000) Thu 4th Sep 2008

The Welsh Liberal Democrat Social Justice Spokesperson, Peter Black has called for the practice of allowing junk mail companies to buy copies of the electoral roll to cease.

He was speaking in the light of a recent survey of election officers which shows that 98% of them believe the practice should stop.

"Most people hate junk mail and cold-calling and councils should not be a part of the process that generates money for junk mail companies in this way," said Mr. Black.

"Although junk mail companies are only able to buy an edited version of the electoral roll, selling it still undermines democracy, dissuades people from voting and gives people the impression that their council is profiting from selling their personal information.

"This is the second report in as many months to recommend that this data should not be sold. In July, the government-commissioned Data Sharing Review led by Information Commissioner, Richard Thomas and Mark Walport, director of the Wellcome Trust also recommended stopping the sale of electoral registers.

"How many more reports and surveys will it take before Labour ministers change the law and ban junk mail firms from getting their information through the electoral roll? "