VOTERS concerned that their personal details will be sold on to third parties by Scottish Borders Council have been offered an apology and an assurance that this will not happen.

Of the 90,280 Borderers currently on the electoral roll, just over 40,000 have already opted out of the so-called “open register” – an extract of the main register which can be bought by “any person, company or organisation” willing to pay the council £118.

But as a result of a printing error, electoral registration forms sent out to all households indicated that these people are, in fact, on the open register.

The document includes a housing enquiry form (HEF) which details everyone already registered to vote at that address and invites householder to add “anyone new” aged 14 and above.

Collecting this information is a statutory responsibility of the council and anyone failing to supply is liable to a fine of up to £1,000.

Retired civil servant Janet Gray is one Borders resident who has consistently opted out of the open register.

When she examined her form, she was shocked to discover that under the heading “included on the open register?” a Y (for yes) symbol had been inserted for both her and her husband, instead of an N for no.

“By opting out we had hoped to minimise the annoyance of nuisance phone calls and unsolicited junk mail so it was quite a jolt to discover from the form that we had actually opted in,” said Mrs Gray.

She emailed the council to complain and received a quick response, with an apology and confirmation that she and her husband were not included in the open register.

It has now emerged that all 40,844 opted out voters were similarly misled.

A spokesperson for SBC said: “Regrettably, due to a print error, all electors who have previously opted out of the open register received an HEF with a 'Y’ marker indicating they were included.

“This is absolutely not the case and all affected electors will continue to be opted out and need take no further action.

“They can be assured that their personal details are not included in the open register and have not been passed to any third party.

“We apologise for the confusion and inconvenience cause.” The spokesperson said the print error would be “reviewed” by the council and revealed that only one copy of the open register had been sold this year.

“Any elector who wishes to opt out of the open register but has not yet done so can mark the HEF clearly to that effect,” added the spokesperson.