Question reference: S3W-08371
- Asked by: Keith Brown, MSP for Ochil, Scottish National Party
- Date lodged: 11 January 2008
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Current status: Answered by Bruce Crawford on 28 January 2008
Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how much it spent on the 2007 Scottish Parliament and local government elections and whether it will provide a breakdown of the expenditure, including any fees paid to DRS Data & Research Services plc.
Answer
The Scotland Office is responsiblefor meeting costs associated with the Scottish Parliament elections. The main expenditureassociated with running local government elections is normally met by local authoritiesfrom within their own budgets. For the 2007 elections the Scottish Government fundedthe following specific elements.
| Funding to local authorities associated with the introduction of electronic counting | £3.56 million |
| Research on format of local government ballot paper | £22,795 |
| Electronic counting software verification | £12,955 |
| Printing and web conversion costs of code of practice for observers at local authority elections | £268 |
| Estimated costs of printing and web conversion of legislation dealing with the local authority elections and local government boundary review | £7,200 |
| VoteScotland campaign - run jointly with the Electoral Commission | £1.25 million |
| Payments to DRS Data & Research Services | £1.26 million |