Chamber and committees

The agreed claims from counting officers, including the counting officers’ services, incurred in running the poll in individual local government areas were as follows:

The total revised maximum recoverable amount of £10,888,558 is £1,919,908 more than the total maximum recoverable amount for counting officers set out in the Scottish Independence Referendum (Chief Counting Officer And Counting Officer Charges And Expenses) Order 2014.

This additional expenditure was due to the very high turnout at the referendum. In anticipation of a high turnout, the chief counting officer provided guidance to counting officers on issues such as printing additional ballot papers, to ensure that replacement ballot papers were available to cover for any damaged or misprinted ballot papers, and limiting the number of electors attending individual polling stations, to avoid queues. In addition, additional staff were employed at count centres in order to ensure a prompt result. These, and other similar sensible contingency measures, added to counting officers’ costs but ensured that the poll ran smoothly on the day.

In addition to the above, the total claim by the chief counting officer for her costs of administering the referendum, including the chief counting officers’ services, was £509,880. This is £159,880 more that the amount set out in article 3 of the Scottish Independence Referendum (Chief Counting Officer and Counting Officer Charges and Expenses) Order 2014. This increase mainly reflects the Chief Counting Officer’s costs associated with the running of the international event to declare the referendum result which took place at Ingliston on the night of 18 to 19 September 2014.

Scottish Ministers will bring forward an order revising the chief counting officers’ and individual counting officers’ maximum recoverable amounts in line with the above figures in due course.