Had an unexpected card through the door saying that the electoral roll bods had tried to confirm who resides here to protect my right to vote and sorry you were out, 'fess up or you'll never get so much as sold a bus ticket in this town again. Bit like the TV licencing blurb, an uneasy blend of selling the benefits and vague threats.

Anyhow,it reminded me of something I've long meant to look into and I thought people here might know about this. I work in a field which sometimes involves dealing with some interesting people and there is an established increased risk of stalking, harrassment and work-related violence associated with this role, as there is for various other professions. A while back a social worker I know had a former service user show up at her door out of the blue and take a car key to the side of her car. Also known other people in a range of professions have their cars damaged, their spouses/children threatened and one person had threats made on their life which ended in someone being sectioned more than once, outright stalking, restraining orders and considerable police involvement over several years. The friend who is a social worker suggested people in jobs that increase their risk of being harrassed, etc. are able to go on the electoral roll anonymously. A quick Google of this indicates this can be done but requires evidence from someone very senior, like a Judge, a Director General or a police Superintendent.

It doesn't seem geared towards being easily workable somehow, especially as this process needs repeating every 12 months.

Anyone know anything about it? I'd go for it myself if it was straightforward enough because there are recognised occupational hazards. Also, I've heard that it causes havoc with credit checks. Anyone got any tips?

The 'edited' version of the register (which anyone can choose to go on) is only available to credit reference agencies and a few other big, licensed bodies with DP procedures in place.

The unedited one is the one available to all and sundry via 118 or their local library. Not sure how effective the edited version actually is, but a family member who is a consultant psychiatrist is on that version and (to my knowledge) hasn't had any problems.

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Soppy anti-British, pro-crime, anti-education, pro-immigration, anti-family nonentity

Interesting. I'm going to try and get hold of literature on the edited version and read up on this. I think I first thought about it way back when I had a colleague who had joined the organisation we both worked for, having managed a womens' refuge previously. Owing to the nature of the work they had had to take personal safety of staff very seriously and had numerous policies on it and so forth and were amazed to find we had none at all. I can think of a few places which have policies about safety on-site but take no real account of how the work can introduce risks into employees lives beyond the office. Really they ought to at least inform people about the edited electoral roll so they can make an informed choice, seeing as its the work that creates the potential risk.