ON AUGUST 22, my wife received a letter from the electoral registration officer, telling her that she needed to provide some information to register to vote by September 1, and that if she didn’t provide it she could be fined £80.

Are they serious? There must be many people in her situation who are on holiday for two or three weeks and therefore would not know of this obligation. I myself have not had the letter. Am I also liable to a fine of £80 for not doing something that nobody has told me I need to do?

Tony Sudbery, Professor Emeritus, Department of Mathematics, University of York.