Clause 6 - CORE schemes: procedure
Electoral Administration Bill
12:00 pm
Harriet Harman (Minister of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs; Camberwell and Peckham, Labour)
In answer to the hon. Member for Somerton and Frome, the clause provides for one exception to the requirement to consult before making an order, where the effect of the order is to terminate part of a scheme only. The thinking behind that exception is that a particular responsibility of a CORE keeper under a scheme may not be working as envisaged, and that it may be necessary to terminate that aspect of the CORE keeper's responsibilities as quickly as possible to limit the negative impact.
In response to the hon. Member for Epping Forest, the proposed consultees in paragraphs (a) to (d) are statutory creatures; political parties are not in quite the same category. Of course, it goes without saying that political parties will be consulted all the way along, but it is just the statutory creatures that are laid out by way of consultation.