The Cabinet Office says outsourcing electoral register administration to the UK will save almost 50% on last year.

Letters have been landing on island doorsteps this week asking recipients to confirm who is eligible to vote in their household.

But if you choose to return your household inquiry form by post, you have to send it in a pre-paid envelope to the government’s electoral registration officer’s ’business partner’ at an address in London, for ’secure processing’.

Alternatively, you can confirm details via a UK website and 0808 telephone line or by SMS - charged at your supplier’s UK text rate.

The Electoral Reform Services has been 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.

Isle of Man Post Office previously had the contract for this service.

A spokesman for the Cabinet Office insisted that the information supplied to ERS would not be shared with third parties.

She said details on the contract were commercially sensitive but it would provide savings of almost 50%.

’In line with standard government practice, an open and transparent procurement exercise was carried out in August/September 2018 to put in place the contract for the 2019 canvass,’ she said.

’Quotes were submitted via the government portal and assessed against the requirements specified in the procurement exercise.

’After considering the options, a decision was taken to appoint the ERS Group. This is a long-established company with a proven track-record of dealing with local authorities, political parties, the NHS and trade unions in the British Isles.

’While the quotes are commercially sensitive, the expenditure for the 2019 annual canvass represents a saving of almost 50% compared with 2018.

’The data captured is used only for Isle of Man electoral registration purposes and is not shared by the ERS Group.

’Once the forms are returned in the pre-paid envelope, ERS scans, sorts and transposes the information to the Isle of Man using a verified, secure platform.’