Resourcing
of the Electoral Commission
10. The process of agreeing the Commission's 2006-07
Estimate was complicated by the need to anticipate the likely
impact of additional resource requirements arising from enactment
of the Electoral Administration Bill, which was still going through
Parliament at the time the Estimate had to be agreed. The Net
Resource Requirement of £26.180 million for 2006-07 finally
agreed also reflected significant economies identified by the
Commission in the course of consideration of the Estimate.
11. The 2007-08 Estimate process was the first in
which the House of Commons Scrutiny Unit assisted in analysing
the Commission's Estimate and the accompanying Plan. It also broke
new ground in that an overall four-year financial framework, with
the bulk of Commission expenditure capped in resource terms for
that period, formed part of the settlement and is reflected in
the Commission's five-year plan. Estimates remain subject to annual
agreement, and the Net Resource Requirement for 2007-08 (and the
resource cap for the three following financial years) set by the
Committee is £23.995 million.
Other
matters
12. In the period covered by this report, there have
been two statutory reports from the Comptroller and Auditor General
on the economy, efficiency and effectiveness with which the Electoral
Commission discharged its duties. The first, entitled 'Is the
public aware of democracy?' was the subject of a formal presentation
to us in July 2006. It was published in the Committee's First
Report 2006[2] The second,
entitled 'Electoral registration: The lynchpin of democracy' was
considered by us in June 2007, and published in the Committee's
Second Report 2007[3].
13. The Committee published its response to the report
of the Committee on Standards in Public Life on the Electoral
Commission, addressing principally the recommendations addressed
to the Committee, in July 2007 in its First Report 2007[4].
The Committee was pleased to see from the Government Response
to the CSPL Report that there is agreement between the Government
and the Committee on recommendations of mutual interest.
1 Until he ceased to be a member of the Committee. Back
2
HC 1581, Session 2005-06. Back
3
HC 997, Session 2006-07 Back
4
HC 996, Session 2006-07 Back