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European Parliamentary Elections (Amendment) Regulations 2009

My Lords, the answer is yes. On how the combination of polls will work, that is governed by the Representation of the People (Combination of Polls) (England and Wales) Regulations and the Local Elections (Principal Areas) (England and Wales) Rules 2006. It looks like more than one statutory instrument governs this issue. Perhaps I may write to the noble Lord with the statutory references. The election rules are modified in the event of combination. He asked whether marked registers are stored locally. The answer is, yes, they are stored locally for local and European elections. If party descriptions are required on the ballot paper—unlike the party label, which is required—they should follow the registered party name on the ballot paper, as the noble Lord surmised. The description should be on the same line, albeit in a smaller font. The font is not specified in order to ensure that suppliers have maximum flexibility when printing the ballot paper. There are directions for printing the ballot paper on the back of form A. That arises particularly from the 2007 Gould report into the Scottish elections. The noble Lord gave an example from page 53 of the regulations. As I understand it, each of the parties has put down just its proper title, as it would be required to do. It has not included any phrase or form of words that may excite or attract local voters. I hope that that is helpful to the noble Lord.