No schools-based or automatic registration pipeline for attainers

Around 8 million eligible voters are unregistered; young people, renters and frequent movers are worst affected, and the Electoral Commission finds a systematic decline in attainer (pre-voting-age) registration in England. The Representation of the People Bill lowers registration age to 14 and enables automated-registration pilots, but commits to no specific mechanism. Welsh pilots (2025) added 16,000 voters including 1,500 attainers, and Northern Ireland has long run a schools registration initiative; England has neither a schools duty nor data-sharing from National Insurance number issuance at 15¾ to auto-register teenagers.

Votes at 16 is worth little if 16-year-olds aren't on the register. Registration is the single cheapest, most mechanical lever on youth turnout, and the infrastructure choice being made in 2026 will shape participation for decades.

A statutory schools/colleges registration duty in England plus automatic attainer registration built on DWP NINo issuance and DfE records, with ring-fenced funding for electoral registration officers, legislated via amendment or secondary legislation under the current Bill.

// State-led: Instrument: statutory schools duty and automatic attainer registration via amendment or secondary legislation.

The current Bill can legislate the cheapest turnout lever with Welsh and NI precedents ready, but commits to no mechanism and nobody is funded to build attainer auto-registration this year.