Shropshire Star

How Shropshire's councils are forced by law to pass on your personal details

Personal details held on the electoral roll are being sold to outside parties for thousands of pounds, it has been revealed.

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Electoral roll data is being sold by councils

Credit agencies and political parties are among groups buying information held by councils in our region.

Shropshire and Telford & Wrekin councils are obliged by law to sell the details of names and addresses on the roll.

They are believed to have made around £24,000 over the last six years.

According to figures released in a Freedom of Information request, dozens of organisations and individuals have received the data.

Telford & Wrekin Council received £12,055.10 from selling the data over the past six years.

The data was sold to councillors, political parties and credit reference agencies, as well as the Dutch Here group which supplies mapping information and data for satellite navigation systems.

Shropshire Council said it only had figures for the past three years - over which time it received £5,514.50, suggesting its data sales are roughly comparable to those of Telford & Wrekin.

Shropshire Council also received £209 in October 2016 for supplying a copy of the open register, which people can ask to be exempted from, to the Here group.

Open registers were also sold to Aston-on-Clun Community Shop, NFU Mutual and Caravanwise Ltd.

Credit agency Equifax, which was at the centre of a data hacking scandal last year when its files were compromised, paid £1,191.50 for full registers in 2016 and 2018.

The ‘full register’ differs from the open one in that it includes individuals who have opted out of having their details made public.

Other credit agencies which bought full registers from Shropshire Council include Call Credit, Experian and Crediva.

Share data management company Equiniti was another company.

The data shows transactions dating back to 2012 for seven local authorities across the wider West Midlands, which collectively brought in £97,501.50 from selling the register.

Councils insist they are legally obliged to make information available and that fees charged are set by the Electoral Commission.

But critics say unscrupulous firms are abusing the system for marketing and publicity purposes.

Liberal Democrat campaigner Rob Quarmby said: "Councils have raked in thousands by flogging our data to businesses and credit rating agencies.

"On one hand councils talk about stopping cold calling and doorstep selling and on the other hand sell our data to anyone who is willing to offer them a cheque. All in all it's pretty two-faced."

But Nigel Newman of Telford & Wrekin Council said: "Under current legislation, we must release copies of the register to any credit reference agency that requests this.

"The cost is set nationally and there is a prescribed list of organisations who the Electoral Commission say we have a legal duty to supply it to, which includes credit agencies and political parties and we must charge them a national rate for this data set by the Electoral Commission."