Book excerpt: This White Paper and draft legislation sets out the next stage in the Coalition Programme for Government on improving the political system. Within the Coalition Programme was the ambition to "reduce electoral fraud by speeding up implementation of Individual Electoral Registration", and this Paper sets out detailed proposals to achieve that objective. At present the electoral register is compiled by household and relies on trusting that those who register to vote are eligible. Individual Electoral Registration requires each elector to register to vote individually, and for each elector to provide personal identifiers for verification. The White Paper sets out a plan to accelerate and implement Individual Electoral Registration in line with the Coalition Agreement by 2014 and before the next UK Parliamentary general election. The Government will also drop the previous Government's plans for a voluntary phase, but instead have a transition period, which means electors who do not register by 2014 will not lose their entitlement to vote in the 2015 General Election. New electors, postal and proxy voters will though need to register under the new system to be able to vote. Alongside this legislation a number of "Data Pilot Schemes" will be launched that will compare the local electoral registers against those of public databases for accuracy and identify unregistered electors eligible to vote. The legislation will also look at modernising the electoral registration in general, including: allowing Electoral Registration Officers to offer more choice in registering, including online; giving people greater control over verification of their eligibility; and once Parliament is satisfied, end the annual canvass of households as the primary means of maintaining the completeness and accuracy of the register.