Clause 9 - Expenditure
Regional Assemblies (Preparations) Bill
4:45 pm
Mr Christopher Leslie (Parliamentary Secretary, Cabinet Office; Shipley, Labour)
I urge hon. Members to support clause 9, which simply enables a Minister to make an order regarding certain expenditure relating to the conduct of referendums under the Bill. The order can be made only with the consent of both Houses.
The clause allows provision to be made for the Electoral Commission to pay counting officers' charges in connection with a referendum on elected regional assemblies. It also enables provision to be made for the Electoral Commission to pay any increase in the superannuation contributions required by a local authority as a consequence of fees paid as part of a counting officer's charges.
As the clause makes clear, the order may set out the type of services and expenses for which payment can be made by the commission and the maximum amount that can be paid in respect of such services and expenses. It may also make provision on payments in advance and accounts to be submitted. The commission must be consulted and the consent of the Treasury obtained before any such order is made.
The hon. Member for Runnymede and Weybridge asked about the quantum of money involved. I am afraid that we cannot say for certain what that will be, as it will depend on the population of the region concerned, whether there is a traditional ballot or an all-postal ballot and whether the poll is combined with a local authority or other election. Those variables also relate to the financial support of the designated yes and no campaigns. It is difficult to give a precise figure.
However, if there were an all-postal ballot, which is one option, we can imagine what one of the larger expenditure factors might be. Based on a cost of about 80p per registered elector, which was the cost in local authority mayoral elections that used all-postal ballots, we estimate that total costs could range from about £2 million in the north-east, which has the smallest number of electors, to about £6 million in the south-east. I hope that those figures for all-postal ballots are helpful, but there are other imponderables and variables, so we cannot be more specific at this stage.