Policy and Reform Minister Chris Thomas has been forced to defend the government’s decision to outsource electoral register administration to the UK.

Letters have begun arriving at households asking residents to confirm who is eligible to vote. But the pre-paid return envelope is addressed to the UK for processing.

The issue was raised in the House of Keys last week, amid concerns about the security of data and also the impact on local businesses. The service used to be performed through the Isle of Man Post Office.

Post Office chairman Julie Edge (Onchan) demanded to know whether the government had considered the impact of their decision.

Mr Thomas said the contract had been awarded following a ’transparent’ procurement process.

’The quotes received were assessed against the requirements specified in the procurement exercise,’ he said.

’The social and economic value of supporting a local business is an important factor in the procurement process, but of course government and all of the public service must also strive to achieve best value in terms of cost and quality through fair and open competition.’

The successful bid was from a ’highly respected supplier’ and was almost 50% cheaper than any quote submitted locally, he said.

’I can confirm that the successful quote was for £32,000,’ he said. ’The cost of supplying and managing the equivalent paper-based services for the 2018 canvass was £66,000.’

The Electoral Reform Services Group was appointed on a 12-month contract to deliver and process the paper-based elements required for the annual update of the electoral register. This includes printing, postage and scanning.

Procurement

Mr Thomas said: ’The data captured during the annual canvass is used only for Isle of Man electoral registration purposes. The data is not shared by the ERS Group or (services provider) Idox with any of their subsidiaries.

’It is not transferred out of the British Isles and it is not subject to automated decision-making or profiling.’

But Lawrie Hooper (LibVannin, Ramsey) said that while the UK was an ’equivalent jurisdiction’ in terms of data protection, its laws were different from the Isle of Man in other respects, such as the Investigatory Powers Act.

He warned: ’There is a risk, a small risk perhaps, after Brexit that the UK will not be granted adequacy - it is not an automatic right.’

Mr Hooper asked what contingencies were in place to ensure data held in the UK would remain safe and secure.

The Minister said that contingency was being ’managed’ and something would be brought forward shortly.