Clause 1 - Piloting conduct at European and local elections

Part of European Parliamentary and Local Elections (Pilots) Bill – in a Public Bill Committee at 10:18 am on 28 October 2003.

Alert me about debates like this

Photo of Mr Nick Hawkins Mr Nick Hawkins Conservative, Surrey Heath 10:18, 28 October 2003

My hon. Friend is right. He reinforces my point about the element of compulsion. My hon. Friend and others, including my right hon. Friend the Member for Wokingham (Mr. Redwood), said on Second Reading that one of the ironies of what the Government propose is that some of the authorities that have been pleased to volunteer for the pilot schemes—perhaps including Chorley—may find that, if the Bill stays more or less in its present form, and however much they have enjoyed pilots in the past and want to participate in them, they will not be allowed to do so unless they fall within one of the regions that is subsequently chosen.

The point of our amendments is that it is crucial that every affected local authority should have the chance to be consulted and to report its views, so that Parliament can debate the matter. That argument is much the same as those that we had in the Programming Sub-Committee before the Government suffered their catastrophic defeat. We have not had the chance to look at the information from the Electoral Commission, and if Parliament does not have the chance to consider the responses of local authorities, it cannot make proper decisions.