BOLTON Council made more than £8,000 selling on residents’ private information over the past five years.

A Freedom of Information request details the cash the authority made from the sale of electoral roll data to individuals and organisations since 2011/12.

In that year, the council made £1,735 from selling electoral roll information — which can include the names and addresses of people in Bolton who are registered to vote.

The following year the town hall earned £1,975 from the sales with a further £1,796.50 in the financial year 2013/14.

The council said it could not give accurate data of money made from electoral roll sales in the 2014/15 year because of the way Electoral Services recorded the figures that year, but said it predicted the amount would be approximately the same as the previous years.

That estimate added to the other figures, along with the £1,951 that was made from sales last year would take the total amount to more than £8,000 made by the council for selling on the personal information.

In a statement, a spokesman for Bolton Council made it clear that the law dictates that local authorities have to make this detail available for sale to individuals and organisations.

He said: “The council is required by law (Representation of the People Acts) to make the electoral register available for sale.

“The price is set by law. Failure to sell the register if requested would be a breach of the council and Electoral Registration Officer’s statutory responsibilities.

“The full electoral register is available to a limited number of agencies such as the police and credit reference companies.”

The council said that the ‘open’ electoral register can be purchased by anyone, but added that electors have the option to opt out of this version of the register, which would mean that details are not sold on.

The authority confirmed that to date, around 50 per cent of electors in the Bolton borough have opted out of the open register.

The spokesman added: “Information regarding the sale and supply of the register and the distinction between the full and open register is included on all registration forms and also on the government’s on-line registration service and voters are given the option to opt out of the open register at this point.”

The data was released by Bolton Council following a request made under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 by The Bolton News.