---

Representation of the People (Scotland) (Amendment) Regulations 2010

My Lords, I thank the Minister for explaining these regulations in some detail. They are a bit opaque when you see what is printed on the page. I was going to ask whether the returning officers are likely to have offices suitable for the receipt of this material, and I was a bit surprised to hear the Minister say that the sheriff’s officers did not feel that they had adequate provision. I suppose that I should be slightly reassured by the fact that he says that the returning officers already keep similar material for the European and local elections. I hope that provision is being made for them to be able to store this additional material. I do not know how much security is required for storing such items. If they are all equally subject to the same regulation that states that they can be destroyed after one year, that simplifies the amount of storage that is required. I am interested to see that this measure includes an element of modification to the Representation of the People (Scotland) Regulations 1986, practically all of which, as far as I can understand, were abolished by the regulations in 2001. This must just be the fag-end of those earlier regulations. Given that this appears to be mainly a tidying-up exercise, we are pleased to support the regulations.