Local Authorities (Conduct of Referendums) (England) Regulations 2007

rose to move, That the Grand Committee do report to the House that it has considered the Local Authorities (Conduct of Referendums) (England) Regulations 2007. The noble Lord said: These regulations concern the procedure at referendums held by local authorities under the Local Government Act 2000. These referendums relate to the question of whether a county or district council, or London borough, should adopt executive arrangements—that is, the referendum is to determine how the authority is run. Executive arrangements include a mayor and cabinet executive, a mayor and council manager executive, or a leader and cabinet executive. The principal purpose of these regulations is to implement changes introduced by the Electoral Administration Act 2006. The provisions need to be in place for a planned referendum due to take place later this year. The regulations are needed to ensure that there is consistency of electoral practice between the elections of local councillors and elected mayors and the conduct of such local authority referendums. These regulations re-enact the Local Authorities (Conduct of Referendums) (England) Regulations 2001 and apply only to referendums held in local authorities in England. The Committee will be pleased to note that my officials have worked closely with both the Electoral Commission and electoral administrators in developing these regulations. The Electoral Commission was also consulted formally on a draft of these regulations and its comments were taken into account in the draft before you. The regulations also set out the rules for the conduct of referendums in full. This will make the rules more easily accessible and user-friendly for electoral administrators and other practitioners. This approach was commended by the Merits Committee. The regulations have three key aims: first, to implement changes introduced by the Electoral Administration Act 2006; secondly, to set out the rules for the conduct of referendums in full; and, thirdly, to remove the option of a referendum being conducted by means of an all-postal ballot following the introduction of personal identifiers for postal voting. Members of the Committee will know that the Electoral Administration Act 2006 made wide-ranging changes to the way that the electoral system is administered. The changes in these regulations implement those new electoral arrangements, which include ballot paper changes aimed at strengthening the security of the electoral process, and to allow more automated procedures to be used in the printing of ballot papers. In particular, the regulations provide for new security markings and unique identifying marks to be used on ballot papers; for the counterfoils to be removed from ballot papers, which will be replaced by a corresponding numbers list; and for a full set of prescribed forms for use in referendums, which include new forms introduced as a result of the Electoral Administration Act. The new official poll card provides a wider range of information for voters, and the regulations introduce new poll cards for postal voters and proxy postal voters. There will be a new postal voting statement which removes the witness declaration but includes a new requirement for postal and proxy postal voters to provide their signature and date of birth. The regulations prescribe the form of words for the question to be asked in the referendum. In particular, we consulted the Electoral Commission, as required by the Local Government Act 2000, for its views on the intelligibility of the questions which may be asked at these referendums. Full details of the Electoral Commission’s comments and the Government’s response are set out in the report, prepared by the Government in pursuance of Section 45(8B)(b) of the Local Government Act 2000, and which the Government have laid before each House of Parliament. In its response, the Electoral Commission made some suggested changes to the wording of the questions. However, the Government were not able to agree to those changes, largely because the Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Bill currently before Parliament will make significant changes to the structure of local authority executive arrangements. Although we agree that the referendum questions should be reviewed, it would be more appropriate to do so in the wider context of the implementation of the local government Bill. Therefore, no changes to the referendum’s questions have been made in these regulations. However, for the longer term, we look forward to working with the Electoral Commission and other stakeholders, and reviewing the wording of the referendum questions. We also sought the views of the Electoral Commission on the limitation of referendum expenses as required by the Local Government Act 2000. As a result, we have increased the referendum expenses limits so that the base figure will be £2,362, an increase of £362, and the additional figure will be 5.9p for every entry on the register of electors, an increase of 0.9p. These changes take into account rises in the level of inflation since the limits were last set on 2 April 2001. In conclusion, the regulations incorporate into the conduct of referendums important changes to our electoral system made by the Electoral Administration Act 2006. They will come into force 14 days after they are made. I beg to move. Moved, That the Grand Committee do report to the House that it has considered the Local Authorities (Conduct of Referendums) (England) Regulations 2007. 19th Report from the Statutory Instruments Committee.—(Lord Evans of Temple Guiting.)