UK Government Memorandum to the Scottish
Affairs Committee's Inquiry on "Experience of the Scottish
Elections"
1. The Government welcomes the Scottish
Affairs Committee inquiry into the conduct of the 3 May 2007 Scottish
Parliamentary elections. The Committee's report on the conduct
of the elections will be used to inform the Scotland Office's
consideration of the Government's response to the Gould report.
The Committee has asked for information on the arrangements for
decision making by the 2007 Elections Steering Group.
2007 ELECTIONS STEERING
GROUP
2. Following a recommendation by the Scottish
Executive's short life STV Working Group that there should be
an similar group to the official level Joint Working Group, which
was established to oversee the preparations for the combined elections
in 2003 and the European elections in 2004, on 30 November 2005
the Finance and Central Services Division of the Scottish Executive
proposed that a 2007 Elections Working Group chaired and supported
by the Scottish Executive should be set up. The equivalent Group
for the 2003 elections was chaired and supported by the Scotland
Office but given the importance of the practical arrangements
for the introduction of Single Transferable Vote (STV), including
the probable use of electronic counting, it was agreed that the
Scottish Executive would take on this role.
3. The remit of the Group was to consider
and oversee the technical and operational aspects of the administration
of and legislation for the elections. Membership was to be based
on the membership of the successful 2003 elections group and the
following organisations were invited to nominate representatives:
— Convention of Scottish Local
Authorities (CoSLA);
— Society of Local Authority Returning
Officers (SOLAR);
— Association of Electoral Administrators
(AEA);
— Society of Local Authority Chief
Executives (SOLACE); and
— Scottish Assessors Association
(SAA).
4. The first meeting of the 2007 Elections
Steering Group was held on 23 February and the following Terms
of Reference were agreed:
— To consider and examine the
legislative and administrative aspects of the Scottish Parliament
and Scottish Local Government Elections to be conducted in May
2007.
— To identify and agree, with
regard to the respective statutory roles of the Scotland office,
Scottish Executive, the Electoral Commission, Returning Officers,
Electoral Registration Officers and Local Authorities, the tasks
required to be completed to enable these elections.
— To oversee the management and
completion of these tasks by delegating the implementation of
specific tasks to sub-groups and by providing technical advice
and executive decisions as necessary.
It was also agreed that 5 sub-groups would be
set up covering:
— achieving common electoral good
practice across Scotland (including e-counting issues)
5. The 2007 Elections Steering Group subsequently
met on the following dates:
6. The Group received updates from each
of the subgroups, where appropriate, at every meeting. Actions
flowing from the Steering Group discussions were allocated to
specific organisations or the subgroups to take forward and those
decisions were recorded in the minutes of the meetings. Thereafter
it was the responsibility of the individual organisations or sub-groups
to take forward the necessary work and report back to the Steering
Group on progress as appropriate. The minutes of the Steering
Group were made available on the Scottish Executive website.
7. At the first meeting of the Steering
Group, it was agreed that the Group would publish quarterly newsletters
on the work of the Steering Group and its sub-groups in order
to keep interested parties informed of significant issues. Newsletters
were published as follows:
— Newsletter No 1—April
2005;
— Newsletter No 2—July 2005;
— Newsletter No 3—November
2005;
— Newsletter No 4—July 2006;
— Newsletter No 5—January
2007; and
— Newsletter No 6—March
2007.
8. Mr Gould met with the 2007 Elections
Steering Group on 12 June 2007 to discuss the role of the Steering
Group in making recommendations and decisions. The Group took
advantage of this meeting to fully discuss their role in the 2007
elections planning process with Mr Gould.
SUBGROUPS
9. The Steering Group agreed that additional
professional expertise should be drawn into the Group's subgroups
and so the membership of these groups, detailed below, includes
organisations not represented at the Steering Group itself. Details
of meetings of the various sub-groups are attached at annex A.
Legislation
10. The purpose of this group was to consider
the legislative tasks to be undertaken and the timetable for this.
The membership of this group was:
— Scottish Assessors Association;
— Association of Electoral Administrators.
11. The meetings of this group were chaired
by either the Scottish Executive or the Scotland Office.
Voter awareness
12. The purpose of this group was to consider
and plan publicity and voter education work. The Scotland Office
was not a member of this group and does not have information on
its membership and meetings.
Training
13. The purpose of this group was to consider
the training and guidance materials for electoral administrators
and candidates. The membership of this group was:
— Scottish Assessors Association;
— Association of Electoral Administrators;
— Disability Rights Commission.
14. The meetings of this group were chaired
by the Electoral Commission.
Forms
15. The purpose of this group was to discuss
best practice with regard to the preparation of both statutory
and non-statutory forms. The membership of this group was:
The meetings of this group were chaired by the
Electoral Commission.
Electoral practice/e-counting
16. From February 2005 to July 2006, this
group met to discuss the planning and implementation of e-counting
for the May elections. From July 2006, its work was taken over
by the E-counting Project Board, who steered the e-counting project
to its conclusion. The membership of the group pre-July 2006 was:
— Association of Electoral Administrators;
17. The meetings of this group were chaired
by the Scottish Executive.
Elections expenses
18. An additional subgroup on election expenses
was created in September 2006 from a short-term working group
on this subject that had been convened by the Scotland Office.
The purpose of this group was to consider the
funding procedures, legislation and guidance for the Scottish
Parliament elections. The membership of this group was:
— Association of Electoral Administrators;
and
19. This group was chaired by the Scotland
Office.
Annex A
MEETINGS OF
THE LEGISLATION
SUB-GROUP
20 April 2005
13 January 2006
6 March 2006
9 August 2006
10 August 2006
1 September 2006
MEETINGS OF
THE E-COUNTING
SUB-GROUP
16 June 2005
10 October 2005
14 November 2005
25 January 2006
22 March 2006
24 May 2006
MEETINGS OF
THE ELECTION
EXPENSES SUB-GROUP
21 August 2006
13 September 2006
24 October 2006
1 November 2006
5 December 2006
11 January 2007
12 March 2007
MEETINGS OF
THE TRAINING
SUB-GROUP
8 February 2006
27 September 2006
MEETINGS OF
THE FORMS
SUB-GROUP
19 January 2007
MEETINGS OF
THE VOTER
AWARENESS SUB-GROUP
The Scotland Office was not a member of this
sub-group and is therefore unable to confirm the dates of the
meetings for this sub-group.
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