Clause 19 - Advice of the Electoral Commission
Regional Assemblies (Preparations) Bill
12:00 pm
Mr Nick Raynsford (Minister of State (Local and Regional Government), Office of the Deputy Prime Minister; Greenwich and Woolwich, Labour)
Yes, it is. As the hon. Gentleman knows, if we hold a referendum in autumn 2004, we
will need to pass substantive legislation to allow for the election of a regional assembly. That will take a substantial period of time after the referendum, although I would not want to be too precise about the dates. However, the hon. Gentleman is very much in the right ball park with the dates that he gave for the creation of an elected regional assembly. We do not want to delay matters even further by waiting until the substantive legislation is passed before giving the Electoral Commission the power to do its work. It is right to give it powers in the Bill, so that it can get on with its preparatory work on electoral boundaries while the substantive legislation is being considered. That all makes good sense.
The only possible argument against that approach, which the hon. Member for Runnymede and Weybridge deployed, is that the electorate should know the details before they vote in a referendum. I shall now tell him why that is not necessary. The local government review must be completed because it will involve a fundamental change to the structure of local government, and there is no way of knowing the outcome. It could involve a unitary structure that is based on a single county, or several unitary structures that are based on different districts. Until the boundary committee carries out the review, however, there is no way of knowing, despite the Opposition's scaremongering and their suggestion that our agenda is to abolish the counties. We have made it clear that we have no such agenda. It will be up to the boundary committee to determine the appropriate structure for local government in a region. That must be determined and made clear to the electorate before they vote in a referendum.