New Clause 17
Political Parties and Elections Bill
11:30 am
Michael Wills (Minister of State, Ministry of Justice; North Swindon, Labour)
I shall be brisk. The purpose of the new clause and the amendment is to transfer responsibility for storage and provision of access to UK parliamentary election records and documents in Scotland, including the marked register, from sheriff clerks to the parliamentary returning officer. The overall aim of the provision is to improve access to the documents, particularly for parliamentary colleagues.
After a Westminster election has been contested in Scotland, election material, including the marked register, is sent by the constituency returning officers to a local sheriff clerk for safe keeping. The sheriff clerk is obliged to make some of the material available for public inspection and to destroy all the material after a year, unless otherwise ordered. However, there have been difficulties with the current arrangements, including around access and the fees to be charged, and sheriff clerks’ offices do not feel that they are set up to carry out those functions effectively.
The change will bring Scotland more into line with the position in England and Wales, where local authorities, through electoral registration officers or acting returning officers, are responsible for those functions by virtue of the Electoral Administration Act 2006, as well as for existing arrangements in Scotland for local government and European election records.
The new provision has the full support of stakeholders in Scotland, including electoral administrators, political parties and the Electoral Commission.