Householders who have already sent off a registration form to ensure they are on the voters’ list have been surprised to receive yellow reminders.

The reminder points you could be fined up to £1,000 if you don’t register details of all those in a household who are eligible to vote.

A government spokesman insisted the forms have not been sent out in error - and it was simply because responses to the forms sent out in January had not been processed before the cut-off date for generating reminders.

She explained: ’There is always a cross-over period of at least 10 days between the date the information is provided to generate the reminders and the date the forms actually start to drop through people’s letterboxes.

’During this period any households that return their original electoral registration form (sent out in early January) or use the online, phone or text options will receive a reminder form.

’This is because their responses will not have been processed before the cut-off date used to generate the reminder forms.’

The Cabinet Office has this year outsourced the electoral register administration to the UK, in a move it says will save almost 50% on 2018.

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.

Completed forms are sent in a pre-paid envelope to ERS 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.