Callcredit begins 2005 electoral roll update

Callcredit, the UK's only web-based credit reference agency (CRA), has already started updating its databases with 2005 Electoral Roll (ER) information and expects to have completed the process by the end of January.

Initial estimates indicate about a third of UK councils appear to be embracing the new standard format for submissions (known as Election Markup Language or EML), introduced earlier this year by the ODPM's CORE (Co-ordinated On-line Register of Electors) Project.

Mark Davison, Callcredit's technology development director said:

"The Electoral Roll is the cornerstone of identity verification and an essential element of the credit granting process. Around 13% of the information on the Electoral Roll changes each year so it is important for CRAs to update their databases as quickly as possible.

"At Callcredit, we handle submissions from the UK's 400+ councils electronically and use sophisticated data matching techniques to ensure errors and omissions can be easily identified and rectified.

We've already started receiving and processing 2005 submissions. The new EML format is a significant step forward and, once all councils supply data this way, it will make the loading process much simpler and quicker, as well as increasing data accuracy."