Clause 22 - Payments to Electoral Commission
Regional Assemblies (Preparations) Bill
6:15 pm
Mr Philip Hammond (Runnymede and Weybridge, Conservative)
I am sorry to interrupt the Minister so soon but he said, unless my ears are going as well as my eyes, that the clause allows the Secretary of State to pay the Electoral Commission the amount that it requests to enable it to carry out the functions. That is not what it says in the Bill—that says that it will be the amount that the Secretary of State requires. Is he saying that, in effect, that will always be the amount that the commission requests?