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Local Authorities (Conduct of Referendums) (Council Tax Increases) (England) Regulations 2012

My Lords, I, too, am a vice-president of the Local Government Association and I very much share the reservations and concerns just expressed by my noble friend Lord Jenkin in relation to these measures. Some of the particular difficulties with these regulations highlight some of the general difficulties with referendums. On 12 October 2010, the House debated the report of the Select Committee on the Constitution on the subject of referendums. There was clear agreement in that committee and no dissent in that debate that referendums are generally appropriate only for issues of major constitutional significance. In my contribution to that debate, reported at col. 428, I expressed my unhappiness at the idea of referendums being considered appropriate for much more widespread use. One of the areas of difficulty with referendums is the potential level of disagreement about the wording of any question, which is the matter that I particularly wish to address in the Committee this afternoon. The Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000 established the Electoral Commission and gave it a role in considering questions to be put in referendums so that they are considered to be fair and intelligible. The Government followed the Electoral Commission’s advice in relation to the referendum about the AV voting system last year. They changed the proposed question when the commission put forward a clearer and simpler alternative wording. Who sets a referendum question is currently a matter of major contention in relation to Scotland and the referendum on independence or an alternative form of further devolution. The Westminster Government have adopted the position that it is only proper legally for the Electoral Commission to be involved in framing that question, with the implication that the commission’s view may prevail over that of the Scottish First Minister, who may want what many people consider to be a less clear, less fair and potentially loaded question. However, in relation to questions on this issue, the Government have not yet agreed that the view of the Electoral Commission on the question to be put should prevail. Indeed, they may defy the views of the Electoral Commission on this matter. I think that that is probably why your Lordships’ Select Committee on the Constitution recommended that the Electoral Commission should be given statutory responsibility to formulate referendum questions, which should then be presented to Parliament for approval. The Government did not accept that position and perhaps these regulations and the arguments over the wording of the questions illustrate why. The Government have accepted only that the commission’s view should be taken into account in framing the question included in regulations such as those being considered today, so I hope that the Minister will give us a clear account of the process that will be involved in agreeing the final wording of the questions. We would like to know how it might be agreed what the role of the Electoral Commission will be. In particular, I would like to know that the specific wording of the questions will be tested properly with voters and with plain language experts, as was the case with the referendum question last year when the Government insisted that the question to be put to people should be properly tested in that way. We would like to know that the questions proposed will be clear, simple and neutral, as the Electoral Commission insists.