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Session 2009 - 10 Publications on the internet General Committee Debates Delegated Legislation Committee Debates |
Draft Representation of the People (Scotland) (Amendment) Regulations 2010 |
The Committee consisted of the following Members:Miss
J. Chandola, Committee
Clerk attended the
Committee Third Delegated Legislation CommitteeTuesday 23 February 2010[Janet Anderson in the Chair]Draft Representation of the People (Scotland) (Amendment) Regulations 201010.30
am That
the Committee has considered the draft Representation of the People
(Scotland) (Amendment) Regulations
2010. Good
morning, Mrs. Anderson. It is a great pleasure to serve
under your chairmanship this morning. I wish to take the opportunity to
offer my congratulations to my hon. Friend the Member for Ayr, Carrick
and Cumnock on her birthday. Let us now get to the business in
hand. The
regulations make amendments to the Representation of the People
(Scotland) Regulations 2001 and to the Representation of the People
(Scotland) Regulations 1986. They are necessary as a result
of amendments made to the Representation of the People Act 1983 by
section 25 of the Political Parties and Elections Act 2009.
Section 25 of the 2009 Act transferred responsibility from
sheriff clerks to parliamentary returning officers for retaining
certain United Kingdom parliamentary election documents in Scotland,
making them available for public inspection and disposing of them. An
order to commence section 25 will be made simultaneously with the
regulations. It
might be helpful to the Committee if I provide some background to the
introduction of section 25 of the 2009 Act. At present, after a
Westminster election has been contested in Scotland, election material,
including the marked register, is sent by the returning officer to the
local sheriff clerk for safe keeping. The sheriff clerk is obliged to
make some of the material available for public inspection and to
destroy all the material after one year unless otherwise ordered.
However, as some members of the Committee will be aware, there have
been difficulties with the present arrangements for some time because
sheriff clerks offices do not consider that they are set up to
carry out those functions
effectively. Following
consultation with stakeholders, the Government proposed a change to the
law to transfer responsibility for storage and access for United
Kingdom election records from sheriff clerks to returning officers.
That is already the position for documents relating to the European
Parliament and local government elections in Scotland. Similar
provision will be made for Scottish Parliament election material
through the Scottish Parliament (Elections etc.) Order, which will be
made before the 2011
elections. As
for timing, the intention is for the new arrangements to apply to the
general election this year subject, of course, to Parliament approving
the regulations and the date of the poll specified in the notice of
election being on or after the date that the regulations come into
force. The Society of Local Authority Chief Executives, which
represents returning officers in Scotland, and the Electoral Commission
were consulted on the proposal to transfer the functions from sheriff
clerks, as well as on the proposed commencement date, and were content
with it. In addition, and in line with statutory requirements, the
Electoral Commission was consulted on the draft
regulations. On
funding, returning officers will be able to claim for the costs
necessarily incurred in connection with their new functions as part of
their claim under section 29 of the 1983 Act. In addition, fees will be
payable to returning officers by eligible purchasers of the marked
register of electors and marked postal vote list for UK parliamentary
elections in Scotland. The regulations do not change the existing fees
set out in the Representation of the People (Scotland) Regulations
2001. To
summarise, the regulations make consequential changes that are
necessary as a result of the transfer of the functions in relation to
retention, public inspection and disposal of parliamentary election
documents in Scotland from sheriff clerks to parliamentary returning
officers provided under section 25 of the 2009 Act. I commend them to
the
Committee. 10.33
am Mr.
Ben Wallace (Lancaster and Wyre) (Con): Good morning,
Mrs. Anderson, I am delighted to serve under your
chairmanship. I wish my good regards and happy returns to the hon.
Member for Ayr, Carrick and
Cumnock. The
statutory instrument is not controversial. We supported its predecessor
and we shall not oppose it at any stage. Amendment to the regulations
is technical and we look forward to swift resolution in Committee.
However, I have one or two questions for the
Minister. First,
on what evidence or for what actual reason are we transferring from the
sheriff to the returning officer? What are the advantages? Secondly,
the sheriff courts are not a political place, whereas local authorities
can be. Is the Minister satisfied that there can be no interference or
threat to the sanctity of an election when such vital information is
held by a returning
officer? David
Cairns (Inverclyde) (Lab): On the point about sheriffs not
being political, would the hon. Gentleman send a strong message to any
MP or MSP not to write injudicious letters to sheriffs in matters that
are clearly to do with the court and are not political at all? That
would be an appalling lack of judgment, would it
not? Mr.
Wallace: It would certainly overstep the mark of the
separation of powers between a parliamentarian and the judiciary. The
Scottish National Party do not have a great record on recognising the
differences between what is appropriate and inappropriate, which brings
me to my third
point. I
congratulate the Government on conferring with and consulting the
Electoral Commission, giving that body a proper place in due process,
which the SNPs Scottish Government seem to want to avoid when
drafting and framing a Scottish referendum on independence. Is the
Minister satisfied about the security of documents held at a council?
Will such a system be free from political interference and from being a
political space? What is the evidence that the responsibility needs to
be transferred, other than just efficiency?
10.36
am Mr.
Alistair Carmichael (Orkney and Shetland) (LD): It was not
my intention to contribute to the debate because, in the same way as
the hon. Member for Lancaster and Wyre, we have no objection to the
regulations. Removing another function of the sheriff
clerksgiven to them for historic reasonsis sad to see,
but I guess it is what we call progress. My reason for changing my mind
and wanting to place my support on the record is that I can also place
on the record my birthday wishes to the hon. Member for Ayr, Carrick
and
Cumnock. Ann
McKechin: I thank the hon. Gentlemen for their comments
and for their support for the general principles behind the
motion. The
hon. Member for Lancaster and Wyre is probably aware of one or two
incidents of lost documentation at sheriff clerks offices. The
latest incident was the Glenrothes by-election in 2008. Last year we
resolved to re-create the register as a result of that
incident. Consolidating
the old documents from every election so that they are held by the one
set of officials is of
benefit and is already the case for local government and European
electionsour intention is to do the same for the Scottish
Parliament electionsfollowing the practice in existence in
other parts of the country, in England and Wales. Such an arrangement
is deemed to be low risk. The Electoral Commission, as the hon.
Gentleman said, has already commented favourably on the proposal.
Consolidating the storage regulations as far as possible is sensible,
so that no separate locations exist between one jurisdiction and the
next for no good
reason. On
the independence of electoral returning officers, they are well know to
the Committee for their independent views at times. We are certainly
not suggesting that they perform their functions with any degree of
political prejudice. In various pieces of legislation to go through the
House, we have ensured such a position remains firmly in
place. Question
put and agreed
to. 10.38
am Committee
rose. |
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