BOURNEMOUTH, Chirstchurch and Poole Council has profited nearly £20,000 from selling access to voters’ personal information, figures reveal.

Since becoming a unitary authority in April 2019, BCP Council has made £17,938.50 by selling the names and addresses of its residents to several organisations, including two credit report agencies from America.

And voters have now been encouraged to change their information preferences if they are concerned about the practice.

Figures obtained by the Daily Echo via a Freedom of Information request reveal that in 2021 alone, the council made £6,275.50. 

Electoral register information can only be purchased by Credit Referencing Agencies allowed to have it by law.

The practice is legal with the law allowing only legally registered credit reference agencies to purchase a copy of the register to help with fraud checking.

The agencies involved in transactions with BCP Council include Equifax and TransUnion - both from America - Experian and Crediva. 

Information sold is at rates set by the government. 

In 2020, BCP Council made £6,442 and the year before that, data from the electoral register was sold for £5,221. 

Former BCP leader Cllr Vikki Slade said: “Selling data for nearly £18,000 feels like an easy win for BCP Council, but not a comfortable win. I just don’t like it. 

“The data is there for electoral purposes, and that is what it should be for. 

Cllr Slade said the public needs to be more aware of the fact you can opt out of giving away personal information.

She said: “I would encourage everybody to tick the box stating that they want to be on the closed register.” 

Andy Hadley, Independent councillor in Poole, said: “I don’t find it ethical that public bodies are expected to sell this sort of personal information, and at no more than a cost recovery basis, whilst we are rightly held to account under data protection legislation for safeguarding all personal information we hold or process. 

“We have lost some of the protections, and especially capacity to face up to multinational corporations, that we had within the European Union about safeguards for data travelling overseas, and whether USA or elsewhere, they do not have the same level of protection of information that the EU legislation afforded us. 

A BCP Council spokesperson said: “The monies received from electoral roll data is not specifically used for a purpose other than to offset the cost of running the electoral team.”

BCP Council leader Drew Mellor was approached for a comment, but he didn’t respond.