Privacy campaigners outraged by electoral register scandal

The UK government announced today that it aims to make electoral roll information accessible online, funding the project by selling the information to credit reference agencies and other bodies.

Privacy International director Simon Davies branded the project "the most bizarre outsourcing ever".

Nicola Wood, people and programme manager at the Improvement and Development Agency (IDeA), which is working on the project, said: "Credit reference agencies will certainly be given access to the full register."

Other private organisations such as health insurance companies may also be able to pay for access. The regulations for access to the electoral roll are being finalised by a Home Office team, which is due to publish recommendations by August.

The knowledge that electoral data will be available to credit reference agencies is likely to drive people with poor credit histories off the electoral roll - effectively excluding them from the democratic process.

A spokesperson for the Data Protection Commissioner expressed serious doubts about the project. "There are always going to be flaws when you take info for one purpose and use it for another," she said. "The main purpose of the electoral roll should be for politics."

Privacy International's Davies added: "There has been a disincentive to vote for years, now it is being placed on a commercial footing."

He also confirmed he is considering mounting a challenge to the plans in the European Court of Human Rights.

The project will be lead by Home Office, in partnership with IDeA, the Local Government Association and the Electoral Commission.

£12m of Treasury funding has been granted to cover the costs of setting up the project, which is due to become self-funded by 2003.

It's likely to consist of a "hub", which will connect the electoral register databases held by 441 local authorities. The company running the hub will also be responsible for cleaning the data, keeping it up-to-date and managing security.

A similar previous project, the National Land Information, saw one company managing the hub, and a group of other competing offering access channels to it on a commercial basis.

A bidders' conference will be held on 30 April, when further details will be available to the press.