BOVFBritish Overseas Voters Forum

Key issue

Better Government Communication

The UK government has no systematic way to identify or contact its citizens overseas — which is why 3.4 million people became eligible to vote and almost none of them found out.

The problem

In January 2024 the 15-year rule was abolished and roughly two million British citizens gained the right to vote in UK parliamentary elections. At the general election that followed, about 191,000 overseas voters were registered — some 5% of the 3.4 million now eligible.

BOVF's own survey work in February 2025 found what the registration figures imply: most people simply did not know. There was no mechanism to tell them. The government had no list, no channel, and no way of identifying who the change applied to.

Why there is no list

This is the structural issue underneath most of the others on this site.

The UK does not maintain a register of its citizens abroad. There is no requirement to notify anyone on departure, no consular registration obligation, and no routine reconciliation between departments. Even the total is an estimate: roughly 5.5 million, a figure derived rather than counted.

The consequences run in both directions. Citizens miss things that matter — electoral deadlines, pension decisions, tax changes, consular advice. And government cannot plan for or consult a population it cannot enumerate. When officials are asked how many people a change abroad would affect, the honest answer is that nobody knows precisely.

What we propose

The practical route is to use services overseas citizens already use, rather than building something new that they would have to discover.

Passport renewal is the obvious candidate. Nearly every British citizen abroad renews a passport, on a predictable cycle, through a government service that already holds their address. Overseas electoral registration lapses after three years and must be renewed — an interval that fits naturally alongside it. Linking the two would maintain registration through a habit citizens already have, and would give government a channel it currently lacks.

This proposal was among those reflected in amendments tabled by Martin Wrigley MP and debated during Committee Stage of the Representation of the People Bill in April 2026.

Why we treat it as a campaigning issue

BOVF exists partly because this gap exists. The reason a volunteer-run forum has to run branches in fourteen countries, hold meetings in Bangkok, Milan and Taipei, and ask supporters to tell their friends, is that there is no official mechanism doing it.

We would be glad to become less necessary.

Who is affected

  • All 5.5 million British citizens living overseas
  • The 3.4 million now eligible to vote, most of whom were never told
  • Citizens who miss consular, tax, pension or electoral deadlines they never heard about
  • Government departments trying to reach a population they cannot enumerate

What BOVF proposes

  1. Connect electoral registration to passport renewal, a service overseas citizens already use
  2. Give citizens abroad a single opt-in channel for notifications that affect them
  3. Publish a coherent estimate of the overseas citizen population, so policy can be made against real numbers
  4. Treat consular registration as an opportunity to inform, not merely to record

Case studies

Get updates on better government communication

Register as a free BOVF supporter. No payment, no commitment — and it strengthens the case every time we speak to an MP.

We store your email, country and the page you signed up from, with the date of your consent. We never sell or share your data. Unsubscribe any time — see our privacy policy.