Can you find someone's address on the electoral register? The open register, the full register and what each one shows

Two versions of one register

Every council's electoral registration officer keeps a register of the people entitled to vote in its area. It is published in two versions.

The open register used to be called the edited register. Anyone can opt out of it at any time, through the online registration service or by contacting their council, and opting out does not affect the right to vote. Nobody can opt out of the full register, which is why the full version is so restricted.

What an entry tells you, and what it leaves out

An entry gives a name and an address, and that is essentially all. It does not usually show a date of birth, so it cannot tell two people of the same name apart. It records registration, not residence: it says a person registered to vote at an address, not that they sleep there tonight.

The register is kept up to date through monthly changes and an annual canvass, after which a revised register is normally published each December. Even so, it lags behind real life. Someone who moved in the spring may still appear at the old address and may not yet have registered at the new one. Not everyone who lives at an address is eligible to vote, and not everyone who is eligible registers. Students can lawfully be registered at a home address and a term-time address at once, and some adults stay registered at a parent's home long after they have left.

The register is also arranged by area and address, not as a national list of names. Each council holds its own, and there is no official service that searches every council's register for one name.

The open register: easy to buy, full of gaps

The open register is what people-search websites resell when they offer an "electoral roll search". It is sold by councils, so it is lawful to buy and use, but it has two built-in weaknesses.

• Opt-outs. A large share of electors tick the box to opt out when they register. The people least likely to appear are often the ones you most need: anyone who prefers not to be contacted, which includes many people who owe money or have moved on from a dispute.
• Age. The copies in circulation are snapshots. A site may be showing an edition that is several years old, without saying so, and still label the result "current".

If the person you are looking for does appear, you have an address where someone of that name was registered at some point. That is a lead worth checking, not an address to act on.

The full register: inspecting it in person

Anyone can ask to inspect the current full register. Contact the electoral services team at the council for the area, which will tell you where and when it can be viewed: usually at the council offices, often by appointment, and sometimes at a library. The rules for inspection are strict:

• Inspection is under supervision.
• You may take handwritten notes, and nothing else. Photocopying and photographing are not allowed.
• Information taken from the full register must not be used for marketing, and misusing it is a criminal offence.

Because the register is organised by address within the council's area, inspection only helps if you already know roughly where the person lives. It can tell you whether a person of that name is registered at a particular address you suspect. It cannot tell you where in the country they have gone. Older editions are held by some libraries and archives, which is useful for family history, but they show where people were, not where they are.

Can the register tell you who lives at an address?

Partly. Both versions are arranged by address, so if you know the address you can see who was registered to vote there: on the open register, those who did not opt out; on the full register, by inspection, everyone registered except anonymous electors. What it cannot tell you is who actually lives there. Tenants who have not registered, children, people not entitled to vote and recent arrivals will not appear, and someone who left months ago may still be listed. For who owns a property, as opposed to who lives in it, property ownership records are the route, for a small fee.

Anonymous registration, and people who do not want to be found

A person whose safety would be at risk if their name and address were published, such as someone who has left an abusive relationship, can apply to register anonymously. They can still vote, but their name and address do not appear on either version of the register.

That is a reminder of what the register is for. It exists so that people can vote, not so that they can be found, and the law protects people who have good reason to stay out of sight. Trace Bureau will not look for anyone who has a protective order against the person instructing, or who has told the police or a court that they do not want contact. The full list of refused purposes is in section 4 of our terms.

Why the register is not a current-address lookup

Put together, the limits are these. The version you can buy is incomplete by design. The complete version can be read only in person, area by area. Neither can be searched by name across the country. An entry has no date of birth to rule out a namesake. And an entry records where someone registered, which can be months or years behind where they live. The register is a useful check on an address you already suspect. It is not a way of finding someone who has moved without telling you where.

Why free people-search sites rarely find a UK address covers the other records the free sites rely on, and finding someone's address with just a name explains why a second identifier matters so much.

What a professional trace does differently

A professional trace does not rest on any single register. Trace Bureau cross-references more than 150 sources, registers and records, and a private investigator checks that they point to the same individual at the same address. You receive a dated PDF report with the person's current registered UK address and a confidence rating: Confirmed, Probable or Possible. The rating answers the question an electoral roll entry cannot: how sure is it that this is your person, and that they are there now?

Standard is £150, delivered within 3 to 5 working days. Priority is £200, delivered within 2 to 3 working days. There is nothing to pay when you instruct. Your card is only saved, and it is charged only when a private investigator has verified a current address. Not found, no fee.

When to instruct a professional trace

Instruct when the register and the other free routes have given you nothing, or only an address you cannot be sure of, and you have a lawful reason to need a current one: money owed, legal proceedings, a former tenancy, an estate or a commercial dispute. The minimum to start is the person's full legal name plus a date of birth or a previous address. A personal wish to know where someone lives is not a lawful reason, and those instructions are refused; reconnecting with a relative or friend is done by consent, as finding a lost relative or old friend explains. Instruct a trace online in about five minutes.