The UK has multiple population registers, there is a general one with births, deaths, marriages, adoptions, and an electoral register, a GP register, and registers kept by credit agencies, and of course by the tax agency (HMRC). I was in some registers with my UK address, but not in others.
For a developed country the UK has surprisingly disjoint control/information of its residents, (and not coincidentally it's probably the easiest european western country to work in illegally. )
In Scandinavia, if you register that you move house or move out of the country with the tax authorities, all the banks and lots of other services will automatically get your new address in their systems. In the UK your GP will text you for an appointment next week even if you left the UK 20 years ago, and told the HMRC you left 20 years ago. Your UK Bank will happily keep you at your old address as well, unless you tell the bank you have moved.
Also the UK has perfectly functioning mail forwarding services, unlike say the Republic of Ireland where a letter is forwarded like 30% of the time. So an EMI can send a card to your UK address where you no longer live, it gets forwarded by Royal Mail to a mail forwader's address, and from there you can send it to you anywhere in the world.
After all, the British Empire was built on a hyperefficient postal service. Phileas Fogg took postal ships and overland postal transportation all the time.
For a developed country the UK has surprisingly disjoint control/information of its residents, (and not coincidentally it's probably the easiest european western country to work in illegally. )
In Scandinavia, if you register that you move house or move out of the country with the tax authorities, all the banks and lots of other services will automatically get your new address in their systems. In the UK your GP will text you for an appointment next week even if you left the UK 20 years ago, and told the HMRC you left 20 years ago. Your UK Bank will happily keep you at your old address as well, unless you tell the bank you have moved.
Also the UK has perfectly functioning mail forwarding services, unlike say the Republic of Ireland where a letter is forwarded like 30% of the time. So an EMI can send a card to your UK address where you no longer live, it gets forwarded by Royal Mail to a mail forwader's address, and from there you can send it to you anywhere in the world.
After all, the British Empire was built on a hyperefficient postal service. Phileas Fogg took postal ships and overland postal transportation all the time.
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