Official Report 181KB pdf
Scottish Local Government Elections Amendment Order 2007 (SSI 2007/379)
Item 3 is consideration of the Scottish Local Government Elections Amendment Order 2007 (SSI 2007/379), which is a negative instrument. At its meeting on 4 September, the Subordinate Legislation Committee determined that it did not need to draw the Local Government and Communities Committee's attention to the order on any of the grounds within its remit. No members have raised points on the order and no motion to annul has been lodged. Can I confirm that the committee has nothing to report on the order?
I have no problem with it in principle, but I want to clarify a point that I might have missed—I apologise if I have. The letter from Kirstie Campbell refers to the review team having access to the ballot papers for the local elections on 3 May. Given that most of the problems that occurred on 3 May related to the ballot papers for the Scottish Parliament elections, is the process for reviewing those papers already in train, or should the order have covered them, too?
A similar order went through at Westminster, but it happened during the holiday period. The Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Sustainable Growth phoned me at that point. Although he was reluctant to use that procedure, he felt that it was necessary to do so at that point and I agreed that he should proceed in order to get to the bottom of the election process, by making the ballot papers available.
Has it been confirmed that the local government election ballot forms and the Scottish Parliament election ballot forms are available for the review?
Yes; an order went through at Westminster.
Meeting closed at 10:17.