Local Government and Regeneration Committee
Meeting date: Wednesday, February 8, 2012
Official Report
418KB pdf
Subordinate Legislation
Representation of the People (Post-Local Government Elections Supply and Inspection of Documents) (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2012 [Draft]
Scottish Local Government Elections Amendment Order 2012 [Draft]
Item 2 is oral evidence from the Minister for Local Government and Planning and from Government officials on two affirmative instruments. Members have a paper that sets out the instruments’ purpose, as well as copies of the instruments.
I welcome the minister, Derek Mackay, and his team of Andrew Sinclair, Jaime Neal and Deborah Blair. I ask the minister to make opening remarks.
The Minister for Local Government and Planning (Derek Mackay)
As the committee is aware, the Scottish Local Government Elections Order 2011 (SSI 2011/399), which provides rules for the conduct of local government elections in Scotland, was made on, and came into force on, 10 November 2011. Since then, we have identified some required amendments, which are addressed in the instruments that the committee is considering.
The draft Scottish Local Government Elections Amendment Order 2012 resolves potential difficulties concerning the publication of voting information when a count has been conducted by means of an electronic counting system. The draft order amends rule 61 of schedule 1 to the 2011 order, on the publication of voting information, so that information about postal votes is to be treated in the same way as polling station information is treated.
That means that, when fewer than 200 postal votes are received in a ward, the information about those votes shall be aggregated with the information from at least one polling station in that ward. The aggregated information will include no fewer than 200 votes, which will protect the secrecy of individual votes should a low number of postal votes be cast in a ward.
The draft order will simplify the publication requirements by removing the requirement to publish at polling station level some of the material that is already published at ward level under rule 56 of schedule 1 to the 2011 order. The publication of such data at polling station level would provide no information about the transfers of preferences on ballot papers for some candidates and only partial information about the transfers of preferences for most other candidates, so it would present an incomplete picture of the election.
The draft order also remedies two minor drafting points in the 2011 order. First, it corrects a typographical error that the Subordinate Legislation Committee identified during the passage of the 2011 order. Secondly, it inserts a consequential amendment to the Representation of the People (Postal Voting for Local Government Elections) (Scotland) Regulations 2007 (SSI 2007/263) so that those regulations refer to the requirement of secrecy provisions in the 2011 order rather than those in section 66 of the Representation of the People Act 1983.
The committee is also considering the draft Representation of the People (Post-Local Government Elections Supply and Inspection of Documents) (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2012. We have recognised that obtaining copies of the marked register post-election is more expensive for Scottish local government elections than for any other election in Scotland, so the draft regulations reduce the costs of obtaining copies of the marked register to bring them into line with those for other elections. The new costs will be £10 plus £2 for every 1,000 entries for printed versions or £10 plus £1 for every 1,000 entries for data versions.
I am sure that the committee will agree that the changes are necessary and I hope that it will support the draft instruments.
By way of information, I also bring it to the committee’s attention that, last night, the electoral management board for Scotland released its directions on the count for the local government elections. It is directing local officials not to begin the count before 8 am on Friday 4 May, so it is clear that there will not be an overnight count. The result will be determined the next day, in line with the consultation that the electoral management board for Scotland conducted.
Thank you for those remarks and for the additional information, which will be helpful to the committee.
Members have no questions. The process seems pretty straightforward—thank you for making it all seem less technical than might otherwise have been the case.
We move to the debate on the motion on the draft Representation of the People (Post-Local Government Elections Supply and Inspection of Documents) (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2012. As no members wish to speak in the debate, I ask the minister to move the motion.
Motion moved,
That the Local Government and Regeneration Committee recommends that the Representation of the People (Post-Local Government Elections Supply and Inspection of Documents) (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2012 [draft] be approved.—[Derek Mackay.]
Motion agreed to.
We now move to the debate on the motion to approve the draft Scottish Local Government Elections Amendment Order 2012. As no members wish to speak in the debate, I ask the minister to move the motion.
Motion moved,
That the Local Government and Regeneration Committee recommends that the Scottish Local Government Elections Amendment Order 2012 [draft] be approved.—[Derek Mackay.]
Motion agreed to.
I thank the minister and his team. We will see you another time, no doubt.
09:51
Meeting suspended.
09:52
On resuming—