To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what his estimate is of the public expenditure cost nationally and locally of implementing the Government's announcement in April 2008 that address information held on the Electoral Register must be reviewed, checked and matched against a national address database.

The Electoral Registration Data Standards Direction of April 2008 was made by the Secretary of State pursuant to the provisions of section 52(1) of the Representation of the People Act 1983 on the recommendation of the Electoral Commission.

The Direction requires all electoral registration officers to ensure that all data stored by them in electronic systems complies with a set of minimum standards from 1 December 2009. In order to comply with the standards, Electoral Registration Officers must ensure address data is formatted according to the requirement of British Standard BS7666:2006 and must match the detail of electors' addresses with the National Land and Property Gazetteer (NLPG) in England and Wales, or in Scotland, the Corporate Address Gazetteers (CAG). The Government have made funding available to Electoral Registration Officers to enable them to meet the costs of compliance.

The Electoral Registration Data Standards can enable local authorities to make efficiency savings through the creation of a single source of addressing information for all of the authority's services. That is because where local authorities take advantage of this the need for multiple entry of address data can be eliminated, reducing costs and inaccuracy. Information about address changes gathered through electoral registration activity throughout the year also ensures that the addresses recorded in local authority systems and in the NLPG and CAG continue to be as accurate and up to date as possible. This can be of particular benefit where the NLPG or CAG are used by the emergency services.

The maximum amount of funding made available to support implementation of the data standards nationally and locally is set out in Tables 1 and 2 respectively. Local authorities in England and Wales and Valuation Joint Boards in Scotland are able to access the grant in aid through a claim process specified by the Secretary of State. Because this claim process will not be completed until 31 March 2010, the final amount paid out will not be known until after this date.