Clause 3 - CORE scheme grants
Electoral Administration Bill
11:15 am
David Heath (Shadow Secretary of State for Constitutional Affairs & Shadow Leader of the House, Law Officers (Constitutional Affairs); Somerton and Frome, Liberal Democrat)
Why, given that the clause is concerned with, effectively, a governmental structure—one necessary for the proper administration of the electoral system—is there a need for subsection (4), which provides for
''conditions as to the circumstances in which the . . . grant is to be repaid''?
Presumably, in this instance, it would be repaid by the Electoral Commission, if it was the commissioning agent, or by individual returning officers, further down the track. I can understand that the issue might arise if criminal fraud were involved, but I believe that that is taken care of in other ways. Why does the Minister think that there is a need for conditions for the repayment of the grant necessary for setting up the CORE provisions?