Section 48 and Schedule 18: Powers to act for the protection of public health: Northern Ireland Section 64: Northern Ireland: timing of the canvass and Assembly by-elections
This section amends the timing of the canvass in Northern Ireland, moving it from 2020 to 2021.
	The electoral register lists the names and addresses of everyone who is registered to vote in public elections. The register is used for electoral purposes, such as making sure only eligible people can vote, and other limited purposes (such as calling people for jury service). The canvass is one method of gathering information on potential additions to, changes to, and deletions from, the register.
	In Northern Ireland the register is maintained through a process of continuous registration and cross matching of data with the addition of a canvass which must take place at least every ten years from 2010. It was last conducted in 2013. There are 1.3 million individuals on the 2019 register and the canvass exercise is hugely resource intensive, requiring postal delivery of significant amounts of printed material and large numbers of processing staff. COVID-19 presents significant risks to canvass being completed successfully in Northern Ireland in 2020 and as a result of this section, the canvass will be moved from 2020 to 2021.
	With the exception of delaying the 2020 canvass by a year, the section retains the timing of the previously established schedule of statutory canvass years, specifying 2030 and every tenth year thereafter as years on which canvass must be conducted.
	The section also provides that if, at any time during the relevant period, the Chief Electoral Officer for Northern Ireland is required to set a date for a by-election for the Northern Ireland Assembly, the Chief Electoral Officer must consult the Secretary of State before setting the date. For this purpose the ‘relevant period’ is the period beginning with the day on which this Act is passed and ending with 1st February 2021.
	The territorial extent of this section is England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland and application of this section is Northern Ireland only.