Shropshire Council

Who can access the register?

Who can find out my name and address?

Anyone can phone us about a particular entry on the register. However, we can only confirm whether a named person does or doesn't live at a given address. If the caller wants to know who lives at an address but doesn't have a matching name, we won't give out the details of the person registered at that property.

Who can look at the register?

Anyone can visit us at the Shirehall in Shrewsbury to view any portion of the register under supervision. You should first call the Elections Team on 0345 678 9015 to make an appointment, as the register is only available to view for 30-minute periods of time.

Former registers are held by our Archives team. You can contact them to arrange to search these.

When searching the registers, please be aware that they're held in street order within polling districts, and not in alphabetical name order. You should therefore be aware that your search is potentially of a register containing over 230,000 names!

Representation of the People Regulations 2001

Under the above regulations, electoral registration officers must supply a copy of the full register to the following bodies automatically:

  • The British Library
  • The Office for National Statistics
  • Electoral Commission
  • Boundary Commission
  • Returning officer for that registration area
  • Area returning officer for a shared constituency at a parliamentary election
  • Local returning officer for a shared constituency at a European parliamentary election

The following people/bodies are entitled to request one copy of the full register during its "shelf life" (between 1 December and 30 November of the following year):

  • Local MPs
  • MEPs
  • Councillors
  • Shropshire Council
  • Parish councils
  • Candidates
  • Nominated persons of a registered political party
  • Holders of a relevant electoral office
  • Registered political parties
  • Police

Any person/body from the above list requesting information must so do in writing to the electoral registration officer. It's available free of charge and supplied in connection with electoral purposes to facilitate the democratic process, and for the purposes of security, law enforcement and crime prevention. It may also be sold to government departments for security, law enforcement and crime prevention purposes, and to credit reference agencies for money laundering and credit assessment checks.

We do supply copies of the full register (with markers indicating who has "opted out") to credit reference agencies for a fee. Most of the credit reference agencies request the full register from us, together with a list of monthly updates to it, which show any recent householder changes that have been notified to us. We can't vouch for how soon these agencies update their records once we've sent data to them, and we can't get involved directly with any individual elector disputes where agencies say they can't find electors on their records. We will however supply a 'confirmation of residency' letter containing a poll number to the elector, which they can send to credit reference agencies, banks, etc as proof of their registration.

For further information on access to the register, please contact the Electoral Commission at Trevelyan House, Great Peter Street, London, SW1P 2HW. (Tel. 020 72710500)