Oral question asked in the House of Commons, by Gavin Strang (Labour). It was answered on Wednesday, 23 April 2008 on behalf of the Scotland Office.

Electoral Administration

Question: Having the privilege of representing the constituency that, sadly, had the highest number of spoilt ballot papers last May, can I urge my hon. Friend to continue working constructively on the follow-through to the Gould report? In particular, does he agree that it is vital to decouple the Scottish Parliament elections from the Scottish local government elections? That would completely eliminate the need for a joint ballot paper. Obviously these are matters for the Scottish Administration, too, but may I also suggest that he give careful consideration to the recommendation of the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities that the Scottish local government elections be held a year after the Scottish Parliament elections?

Answer: As my right hon. Friend knows, that issue is currently out to consultation by the Administration in Scotland. Their preferred option would be to decouple the elections and to have the local council elections a year later, as he suggested, which is one of the options in the consultation. It is important to send the people of Scotland a clear signal today that what occurred on 3 May last year will not happen again, that we will not see a repeat of the confusion that led to the unacceptable number of spoilt papers again, and that steps have been taken by the Government and will be taken in due course by the Scottish Administration to restore people's confidence in the integrity of the electoral system.

Secondary information