Background to the Act Register of Young Voters Declaration of local connection: additional ground for young people
16.Section 7 allows any child who is or has been ‘looked after’ or any child kept in secure accommodation (as defined in subsection (5)(b)) who does not wish to disclose the address at which they are resident to register using an address in Scotland at which they have previously resided. They can do this by making a “declaration of local connection” (which is a form available from an ERO). This arrangement is already used in some circumstances for electoral registration under the 1983 Act.
17.A ‘looked after’ child is defined as one who is looked after by a local authority in accordance with section 17(6) of the Children (Scotland) Act 1995 (duty of local authorities in relation to looked after children). This category of child includes those for whom a local authority is providing accommodation under section 25 of the 1995 Act, those who have been through the Children’s Hearing system and are subject to a compulsory supervision order or interim compulsory supervision order, those subject to an equivalent order made elsewhere in the UK and for whom a Scottish local authority now has responsibility and those in respect of whom a permanence order has been made under section 80 of the Adoption and Children (Scotland) Act 2007 and which still has effect. In these cases a child may be cared for away from their normal place of residence, for example, by foster or kinship carers, prospective adopters, in residential care homes or residential schools.