Hansard

It is a privilege to lead my first debate as Minister for Local Government and Planning on the subject of local government elections. This is my first opportunity to welcome the Opposition spokespeople Sarah Boyack and Margaret Mitchell to their respective roles.

The 2012 local government elections will be an opportunity to renew local democracy and refresh local government’s mandate. I am sure that we all share the aim of delivering a fair and transparent election in which the lessons of the 2007 difficulties have been learned. I pay tribute to my predecessors Bruce Crawford, Jim Mather and Aileen Campbell, who began the improvements that I would like to see through.

In approaching the local government elections, we have pursued the recommendations of the Gould report, and I continue to seek consensus on matters relating to those elections. The overall conclusion of the Gould report was damning, stating that Scotland’s voters had been treated “as an afterthought” in the planning and organisation of the elections in 2007.

A range of actions have therefore been taken to address the concerns that were raised about the previous election, which suffered from the effects of a combination of factors. Throughout the preparations for the 2012 local government elections, we have kept at the forefront of our minds the interests of the voter and the specific recommendations of Ron Gould, which were widely welcomed and supported by the Parliament in the previous session.

The Gould report found that the fragmentation of roles and responsibilities was a critical barrier to the smooth administration of elections. The Parliament passed the Scottish Local Government (Elections) Act 2009, which decoupled Scottish local elections from elections to the Scottish Parliament and provided for two five-year terms for local government, with elections to be held in 2012 and 2017. After that, local government terms will revert to four years, with local elections being held at the mid-term point of the Scottish parliamentary session. The aim of decoupling the two sets of elections was to make things easier for the voter; to put the voter first; to avoid the voter having to consider two different voting systems; to reduce voter confusion; and, just as important, to give each election its due prominence.

While talking of confusion, I should say that I have been struck by the number of pieces of legislation that govern elections and how they should be run. Addressing that will not be a short-term piece of work, but I would like to see moves towards the consolidation of electoral legislation. That work would, of course, be much easier and more effective if the Scottish Parliament had full legislative responsibility for all elections, but that is for the future. For now, local government deserves a stand-alone election, in which local matters can be discussed and local candidates can have their opportunity to campaign without being crowded out by parliamentary elections.

Gould recommended the creation of a chief returning officer to co-ordinate the administration of local government elections. The Government consulted on that and, following consideration of the comments that it received, introduced a bill. The resulting Local Electoral Administration (Scotland) Act 2011 created the electoral management board for Scotland. The board will assist local authorities and others to carry out their functions and promote best practice in the administration of elections. The convener, who must be a returning officer, is appointed by Scottish ministers and will have the power to give directions to returning officers and electoral registration officers. Those directions will relate primarily to administrative issues. The convener must consult board members and the Electoral Commission before giving a direction.

Through the same legislation, we extended the Electoral Commission’s statutory functions in Scotland to include the local government elections. That extension reflects the need to remove fragmentation of responsibilities; in addition, it will provide consistent oversight of elections. The commission has already carried out some activity on an ad hoc basis, such as the provision of public awareness campaigns, and the bill formalises that work.

Another key Gould recommendation was to ensure that the relevant legislation is in place six months before an election to give administrators confidence in developing their plans for it. I am pleased to remind the Parliament that, in accordance with that recommendation, we agreed the legislation that will govern the 2012 elections at the beginning of November last year.

On 3 September 2010, we published “The Administration of Future Elections in Scotland: A consultation exercise to examine the recommendations of the Gould Report to improve administration of future elections in Scotland”. It covered a range of issues, from the election timetable and the design of the ballot paper to longer-term considerations such as the voting age. We were encouraged by the quality and support of the responses that we received, which helped to shape the Scottish Local Government Elections Order 2011, including the proposed ballot paper.

As recommended by Gould and others, we have tested the ballot paper design with a cross-section of voters, using the principles in the Electoral Commission’s guidance “Making your mark”. The draft ballot paper was included for public consideration in the Scottish Government’s consultation on the administration of future elections in Scotland. The aim of the testing, which was carried out by external researchers, was to assess the clarity and usability of the draft ballot paper and to make improvements at each stage.

The research identified that participants liked the overall design, describing it as being clean, simple and straightforward, but highlighted a continuing issue in that participants did not have sufficient knowledge of the single transferable vote system. The report therefore recommended an information campaign that focuses on STV in the run-up to the 2012 elections. The Scottish Government accepts that recommendation and will work with the Electoral Commission and the electoral management board for Scotland to take it forward. The revised ballot paper was used in the successful bulk testing of the e-counting system that took place during the summer last year.

When voters go to the polls, it is important that the arrangements for casting their vote—and indeed the process that takes place behind the scenes before election day—are as simple as possible and are consistent with other elections. In considering the regulations for this year’s local elections, we therefore examined the contents of the regulations for voting in the 2010 Westminster elections. That allowed us to pick up a number of minor changes that have been made since 2007. By incorporating those changes into our regulations—for example, changes to the electoral timetable—we have been able to ensure a degree of consistency for the voter and the electoral administrator.

We gave the electoral management board for Scotland and the Electoral Commission copies of the draft order so that they could provide detailed comments. The vast majority of the comments that we received have been incorporated into the order, and I thank the board and the commission for their contributions.

However interesting we make the local government elections, we are unlikely to see USA or post-apartheid South Africa-style queues in May. However, I make the Parliament aware of a new provision that addresses an issue that was experienced in England in 2010. A person who has presented at a polling station in time and is held in a queue to cast their vote may still put their ballot paper in the box after 10 pm. The inclusion of that provision seeks to address any confusion that has arisen on the technical issue of close of poll. The Scottish Government is the first Administration to include such a provision in election rules and the move has been welcomed by the Electoral Commission.

We have received a number of informal representations about that change of policy from electoral administrators who feel that it might be difficult to manage. While not discounting those views, we agree with the Electoral Commission, which describes the change as a

“positive step to ensuring that every vote counts in the local government elections”.

To give further reassurance, the Electoral Commission is working with the electoral management board for Scotland to produce effective guidance on how to manage the provision.

We have recently introduced legislation to reduce the cost of obtaining copies of the marked register. That will bring costs into line with those for other elections in Scotland.

I also take this opportunity to inform the Parliament that we will introduce legislation next week to increase the spending limits at local government elections by 17.5 per cent. That is a rate-of-inflation increase since the previous review in 2005, and it responds to a unanimous request from the political parties panel that the limits be increased. As it happens, representatives had differing views on the uplift. On this occasion, I have sided with the Labour Party representative’s view on the increase. Any future increase will be a matter for further consideration and consultation.

The use of single transferable voting for local government elections means that e-counting is almost inevitable.