Service standards and performance

The annual canvass

We aim to keep the details held on the register as complete and accurate as possible. We continually review how we carry out our canvass, and where necessary redesign our canvass registration form and accompanying documents in order for them to be as user friendly as possible.

As well as making improvements to our form we have also introduced some new initiatives over the past few years and these include the following:

The introduction of Freephone, Internet and Text (SMS) re-registration facilities for households where the details have not changed, have enabled households to re-register without the need to complete and return their form. During the annual canvass these facilities are availble twenty four hours a day, seven days a week. The number of households who have registered using these facilities has increased from 17,076 in 2003 to 31,689 in 2011. This is an increase of 14,513, with an increase of 3,530 between this year and last year.

Many of our canvassers identified certain blocks of flats and other properties as being impossible to gain entry to, especially newly built properties and those that are gated and codes are required to access the buildings. Therefore the decision was made to canvass these properties completely by post.

At the end of the canvass in 2011 a letter was sent to all non-responding households advising them that if they did not return their form or register via Freephone, Internet or Text (SMS) re-registration their details could be passed to our Legal Section with a possibility of them being prosecuted.

These initiatives and the hard work of our canvassers have led to steady increases in the percentage return of households who respond during the canvass. The percentage return at the end of the canvass in 2011 was 97%, which is an increase of 1.9% from 2010.

Comparison of results of the 2011 canvass with other London boroughs show our registration rate was 4.2% higher than the Inner London average and the second highest of the 12 Inner London boroughs.

The following bar charts show the number of households who have responded during the canvass December 2004 to December 2011, and the total electorate for Wandsworth December 2004 to December 2011.