MP for North East Hertfordshire, Sir Oliver Heald, has praised Facebook’s voter registration scheme. Backed by the Electoral Commission, the initiative advertised online voter registration to all British users of the social media website.

In the House, Sir Oliver highlighted the fact that 35 million people will have seen the advert, and said that “this sort of innovative approach will lead to better use of online registration”. The Minister replied that modern schemes are the way forward in order to get the “vast majority of the British public who should be on the register but are not” registered to vote.

Commenting, Sir Oliver said, "We are very fortunate in the UK to live in a democracy, but many people who should be registered to vote are not. This initiative, and others like it, will be an excellent way to get people more involved in the democratic process."