Registering to vote is the first step to taking part in any election in the United Kingdom, and it is free and quick to do online. Your name must be on the electoral register before you can vote, and you are not registered automatically just because you pay Council Tax or are registered with a GP. Registration takes about five minutes on GOV.UK, and you only need to register once at each address. If you move house or change your name, you will need to register again, so it is worth checking your registration whenever your circumstances change.

Who can register depends on where you live and your citizenship. If you live in England or Northern Ireland, you must be aged 16 or over to register, and you can only vote once you turn 18. If you live in Scotland or Wales, you can register from the age of 14, although you still cannot vote in most elections until you are 16 or 18 depending on the election. British citizens and Irish citizens can register, and so can Commonwealth citizens, including citizens of Cyprus and Malta, and citizens of Denmark, Luxembourg, Poland, Portugal or Spain. Citizens of other EU countries can also register if they had permission to enter or stay in the UK on or before 31 December 2020 and that permission has continued without a break. You can register up to two years before you reach voting age, and GOV.UK has a checker that sets out the rules for your circumstances.

If you live abroad, you can register as an overseas voter if you have previously lived in the UK and are a British citizen, or an eligible Irish citizen registering to vote in Northern Ireland. You will need to give the postcode of the last UK address you were registered to vote at, or the last UK address you lived at if you never registered. You may also be asked for your passport details. There are separate registration routes for people registering to vote in Northern Ireland, for Crown servants and British Council employees, and for members of the armed forces, and GOV.UK links to each of them from its register to vote page.

To register online you will need your National Insurance number, your date of birth and your address. You can still register if you do not have a National Insurance number: the online form asks for a reason why you cannot provide one, and the Electoral Commission notes that the registration website will not let you submit an application online unless you provide all the information it asks for or give a reason why you cannot. If you are under 16, there is no requirement to provide a National Insurance number at all. Your details are checked against Department for Work and Pensions records, and your local electoral registration office may contact you if anything does not match.

The online process itself is simple. Go to the GOV.UK register to vote page, enter your postcode and address, and work through the questions about who you are, where you live, and your nationality and date of birth. The form asks whether you want your name to appear on the open register, which is the version of the electoral register that can be bought by any person or organisation: you can opt out, and opting out does not affect your right to vote. Once you submit the form, your local electoral registration office processes the application, and your name is added to the register at the next monthly update. Your name can take up to six weeks to appear, depending on when you applied, and a revised register is published each year on 1 December.

If you cannot register online, you can register using a paper form, which you can print from GOV.UK and send to your electoral registration office. The Electoral Commission also notes that people can apply in writing, by telephone or in person where the local office offers those options, and that electoral registration officers must send an invitation to register to potential electors within 28 days of becoming aware of them. There is an easy read guide to registering to vote, produced by GOV.UK and Mencap, for people with a learning disability, and your electoral registration office can help if you are unsure about any part of the process.

Deadlines matter. If you want to vote in a specific election, you must register at least 12 working days before polling day, and the deadline is normally midnight on that day. If you miss it, you cannot vote in that election, although you will be registered for future ones. Postal votes have an earlier deadline of 11 working days before the election, and proxy vote applications must be made by 6 working days before polling day. These deadlines apply to each election separately, so a by-election, a local election and a general election each have their own registration cut-off. Councils publish the exact dates for each poll, and it is always worth checking the deadline for the election you want to vote in rather than assuming you are in time.

Moving house is the most common reason people fall off the register. When you move, everyone over 18 at your new address must re-register, even if you were registered at your old address. Students can register at both their home address and their term-time address, but they can only vote once in any one election, and in a general election they must choose one address to vote at. People with two homes can register at both addresses, but again can only vote once in a parliamentary election, although they may vote in both areas in local elections. If you change your name, for example after marriage, you should update your registration as well, and your electoral registration office can advise on what proof is needed.

Once you are registered, you can choose how to vote. You can vote in person at your polling station, apply for a postal vote, or apply for a proxy vote so that someone you trust votes on your behalf. Postal votes are applied for online on GOV.UK or by paper form, and your ballot paper is posted to you before polling day. Proxy votes are useful if you will be away, ill or otherwise unable to get to the polling station. In an emergency, for example if you fall ill or are called away for work at short notice, you may still be able to apply for an emergency proxy vote after the normal deadline, but you will need to explain the reason and provide supporting evidence.

If you vote in person in England, or in a UK general election anywhere in Great Britain, you will need to show photo ID at the polling station before you are given a ballot paper. Accepted forms of ID include a passport, a driving licence, a blue disabled person's badge and certain travel passes. If you do not have any accepted photo ID, you can apply for a free Voter Authority Certificate from your local council, and the deadline for applying is normally 5pm six working days before the election. The Electoral Commission publishes the full list of accepted ID on its website. Northern Ireland has had a voter ID requirement for longer, and its rules are set out separately by the Electoral Office for Northern Ireland.

It is easy to check whether you are already registered: contact your local council's electoral services team, who can confirm whether your name is on the register for your address. You will not receive a polling card if you are not registered, and the absence of a card is often the first sign that something is wrong. Each year, councils also carry out an annual canvass, contacting households to check that the electoral register is up to date. If you receive a canvass form, respond to it promptly, because it is how your council keeps the register accurate and how it identifies people who need to register or re-register.

Registering to vote is one of the simplest civic tasks there is, and it is the only way to make sure you can have your say when an election is called. It takes about five minutes, it costs nothing, and nobody should ever charge you for it. If you have moved house, turned 16, become a citizen, or simply are not sure whether you are on the register, go to the official GOV.UK page and check today. Election deadlines arrive quickly, and the 12-working-day rule means that leaving it until polling week is too late. Rules can change, so always check the official GOV.UK page for the latest guidance before you rely on it.