Council asks postal voters to re-register after cyber attack

Gloucester City Council has asked postal voters to re-register as it continues to grapple with the impact of a cyber attack last December.

The attack severely affected the council’s IT systems and it has since emerged that it was not insured against this.

All waiting applications to register to vote have now been dealt with and “the city’s postal voters are now being asked to reapply to ensure that they can continue to vote by post”, the council said.

It added that the electoral register had been recovered, but postal vote applications previously submitted were lost.

Returning officer Jon McGinty said: “We apologise for the inconvenience to voters but we would urge them not to delay in returning their new postal vote application form so that we can make sure they can continue to vote by post at future elections.”

Although the attack took place eight months ago the council’s webpage on the cyber incident states: “We are experiencing some disruption to services and residents may experience delays but we are working hard to minimise the impact.”

Gloucester said it was working with the National Cyber Security Centre and the National Crime Agency “to understand more about the nature of this incident”.

The council said it was unable to access previously reported issues and give updates on these and could not offer pre-bookable face-to-face appointments.

It said the Local Land Charge system was restored in June but its advice on planning still states that updates on planning applications submitted in 2021 can only be obtained by contacting the case officer by email  and “it is not currently possible to view historic planning applications on our website and we are not able to email or post plans to customers”.

Gloucester has decided to replicate payments made in November 2021 - before the cyber attack - for housing benefit but said its interactive online housing benefit and council tax support forms were “not currently operational”, and nor were online applications for discretionary housing payments.

An exchange at a council meeting earlier this year revealed the council had not been insured.

Cabinet member for performance and resources Hannah Norman said: “In line with many other councils across the country, city council officers will consider insurance brokers’ options and conclude whether products on offer provide sufficient value for money cover for the sorts of costs that councils might face.

“Officers consider that it is highly unlikely that any products procured would have provided value for money cover for the recovery costs that have been incurred by the council since the cyber incident.”

Mark Smulian