Hansard

I am pleased to open this afternoon’s debate on the general principles of the Scottish Elections (Dates) Bill. The bill is very short and straightforward, and I want to take this opportunity to set out to the chamber why it is necessary.

As things stand, there will be general elections to both the Scottish and United Kingdom Parliaments on 7 May 2020. Such a clash is undesirable for a number of reasons. For example, we know from our experience in Scotland in 2007 that holding different elections with different voting systems on the same date can lead to unusually high levels of spoiled and rejected ballot papers. The issue was rightly of great concern in 2007, and it was why Parliament concluded unanimously, in agreement with the Gould report, that different Scotland-wide elections should not be held on the same date. In fact, last May, the Presiding Officer wrote to the Secretary of State for Scotland, setting out the position that she had agreed with all the main party leaders that it was imperative that an alternative date be set for the Scottish parliamentary elections, as happened in 2011 when our election was moved from 2015 to 2016.

Of course, the Presiding Officer had to write to the Scottish Secretary, because the power to amend the date for a Scottish Parliament election currently sits with Westminster; in 2011, it was Westminster, not this Parliament, that legislated to move our election from 2015 to 2016. However, members will no doubt be aware of the Smith commission’s recommendation that

“The Scottish Parliament will have all powers in relation to elections to the Scottish Parliament and local government elections in Scotland”.

When enacted, the Scotland Bill will give effect to that recommendation. The timing for when that will happen is still very much the subject of current debate, but we can be pretty sure that it will not happen in time for the Parliament to assume responsibility for elections in Scotland before May of this year.

The Scottish and UK Governments both agreed on the importance of voters knowing the length of the parliamentary session that they were voting on before they went to the polls in May. As a result, the Deputy First Minister and the Secretary of State for Scotland agreed a section 30 order under the Scotland Act 1998 to transfer to the Scottish Parliament the power that enables us to bring forward this bill, and that order was approved by both the Scottish and UK Parliaments. I hope that everyone in the chamber will agree that it is absolutely right for this Parliament to legislate to change the date, which is the purpose of the bill.

As for the bill itself, it is, as I said at the start of my remarks, very short and straightforward. It proposes moving the Scottish Parliament election, which is currently scheduled for 7 May 2020, to 6 May 2021 to avoid coinciding with the Westminster election, which is also scheduled for 7 May 2020. That would mean a five-year term for the next parliamentary session, which would mirror the one-year extension to the current parliamentary session that was set by the Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011.

Members will be aware that the Northern Ireland Assembly and the National Assembly for Wales have already moved their elections to 2021 to avoid the clash of date in 2020. Indeed, legislation has been passed to permanently change the frequency of elections to both Assemblies and ensure that they happen at five-year intervals. I will return to that issue in relation to Scotland later.

However, moving the Scottish Parliament election to May 2021 will mean a clash with local government elections, which are scheduled for the same date. All the arguments that I have already set out against a Holyrood and Westminster clash of dates apply equally to a Scottish Parliament and local government clash; in fact, it was such a clash between elections in 2007 that brought about the Gould report, which, as I said, the Parliament unanimously agreed to. As a result, the bill proposes moving the local government elections scheduled for 6 May 2021 to 5 May 2022, which would mean a five-year term for councillors elected in May 2017 and would also replicate the one-year extension to the current local government term.