08 May 2007
Mr Speaker - With permission I would like to make a statement on the conduct of the elections to the Scottish Parliament held on May 3rd.
A great deal of wholly legitimate public concern has been expressed over certain aspects of last Thursday's election. I entirely share these concerns.
They focus mainly on three areas; the arrangements for the administration of postal ballots; the operation of e-counting machines; and the significant numbers of spoilt ballot papers.
Mr Speaker, when it became apparent in the early hours of Friday morning that difficulties were emerging, I contacted Professor Sir Neil McIntosh, the Scottish Electoral Commissioner. I expressed to him my concern that these issues be addressed as part of the statutory review of the Scottish Elections that the Commission is obliged to undertake, as a matter of urgency. Sir Neil was able to offer me this re-assurance and this investigation is indeed now underway.
The Electoral Commission has a statutory duty to report on the Scottish Parliamentary elections. At the request of the Scottish Government it will also be reporting on the local government elections. The Commission is an independent body and is committed to ensuring a full and independent review of the Scottish elections.
In those areas where the commission itself has an operational involvement, for example in its statutory duty to promote public awareness of electoral systems, the Commission will ensure independent evaluation of its own work, as it has in previous statutory reports. The Commission is currently finalising the scope and timescale of the review, but intends to publish a report in the summer.
Mr Speaker, a focus of public concern has been the adoption of a single ballot paper for the Scottish elections and the holding of these elections on the same day as the local government election.
The poll for the Scottish parliament elections is set in the Scotland Act. It has a pre-determined cycle that Parliament at the time supported fully. I am not aware of any calls to change that. The decision to hold the local government elections on the same day was entirely a decision for Scottish Government Ministers. It was enshrined in legislation which was fully debated and passed by the Scottish parliament. [2001]
Without wishing to prejudice the findings of this enquiry I would like to set out to the House the sequence of recommendations, consultations and decisions that led to the adoption of a single ballot paper for both elements of the Scottish Parliament elections, which are matters for which the government has legislative responsibility.
Mr Speaker, on the 25th of May 2004 my predecessor as Secretary of State, my Rt Hon Friend for Edinburgh Central, announced the creation of a Commission under the Chairmanship of Sir John Arbuthnott to examine the implications of Scotland having four different voting systems.
This Commission was independent and included nominations from political parties.
The Commission issued a consultation paper in January 2005 and spent 12 months gathering evidence and carrying out a wide-ranging and extensive enquiry.
The Arbuthnott Commission issued its report jointly to my predecessor and the Scottish First minister on 19th January 2006.
The report contained a series of recommendations and suggestions - some to the electoral commission concerning voter education; some to the Scottish Government, such as a recommendation to move the date of the local government elections; and several recommendations to the government.
My Right Hon. Friend made it clear that it was unlikely that we would be in a position to implement those recommendations from the report which would require primary legislation, in time for the 2007 Scottish elections.
However there was one matter that could be progressed without the need for primary legislation - the suggestion that the two ballot paperor the regional list and constituency member be combined into one, with the regional list on the left hand column, based upon the example of the New Zealand paper.
In light of the views of the Arbuthnott Commission I decided to proceed with a wider public consultation in order to test whether the suggested move to a single ballot paper commanded more general support, and to explore the appropriate design of such a ballot paper.
The Scotland Office launched this consultation on 9th June 2006. In addition my honourable friend the Parliamentary Under-Secretary met with a range of interested parties including representatives from disability rights groups to explore these issues.
There was a significant level of support for a single ballot paper. Of 29 respondents the Scottish Senior Citizens Unity Party, the Liberal party of Scotland, Enable Scotland and Capability Scotland were not in favour of a combined ballot paper. I have requested that all responses to this consultation are placed in the library of the House.
The major political parties who expressed a view were largely in favour:
Derek Barrie, Chief of Staff, on behalf of the Scottish Liberal Democrats responded on the 15th June that: "The Scottish Liberal Democrats warmly welcome and fully endorse the proposal to have one ballot paper only for the next diet of Scottish Parliament elections in May 2007. This is one recommendation of Arbuthnott that we fully agree with."
Peter Murrell, Chief Executive of the Scottish National Party responded on the 16th August 2006 that: "The Scottish National Party is in support of the proposed move to a single ballot paper for both votes in the Scottish Parliament elections. We believe that this will aid understanding of both elements of the voting system and, in particular, remove any misunderstanding that the regional vote is somehow a second preference vote"
Lesley Quinn, General Secretary Scottish Labour Party responded that: "The Scottish Labour Party strongly supports a single ballot paper, as this will simplify voting, counting, voter awareness and understanding. A single ballot paper will reduce the potential for voter confusion and be easier for people to use".
No response to this consultation was received by the Scottish Conservative Party.
Beyond the political parties the Electoral Reform Society responded that "The Electoral Reform Society supports the use of a single ballot paper for the Scottish Parliament Elections"
And SOLAR (Society of Local Authority Lawyers and Administrators in Scotland) responded that: "The SOLAR elections working group unanimously agreed to support the proposal that both Scottish Parliament contests be contained on one ballot paper."
In order to further explore these issues in advance of decision as part of this consultation the Scotland Office also requested the Electoral Commission to research with voters the impact of any possible change to the ballot paper format.
On the 4th August 2006 Sir Neil McIntosh wrote to the Parliamentary Under-Secretary enclosing the findings of this research which involved focus groups carried out in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Inverness and Dundee. A copy of this research has been placed in the library of the House, together with the covering letter from the Electoral Commission.
In that covering letter Sir Neil McIntosh wrote: "As you can see, the research draws a number of clear conclusions for the design of the Scottish Parliamentary Ballot Paper. These conclusions point to the interests of the voter best being served by: A design of ballot paper that incorporates both the regional and constituency ballot papers alongside each other on a single sheet of paper"
The findings of the focus groups indeed supported the move to a single ballot paper, with a significant majority of respondents agreeing, with the overall preference in favour of a single combined ballot paper rather than two separate papers.
Only after this extensive consultation involving the widest possible range of stakeholders, the support of the main political parties who expressed a preference, and the research received indicating the best interest of the voter being served by a single ballot paper, and clear official advice, was a decision taken to proceed with a single ballot paper for the Scottish parliamentary elections.
If I can turn now to the issue of delays in the administration of postal ballots. The handling of postal votes is increasingly of public interest and concern. That is why we already have stiff penalties in legislation to prevent fraud. The use of postal votes in higher numbers than before makes that all the more important.
When it became clear that such delays were occurring in the days prior to polling day I instructed my officials to contact the Electoral Commission to ensure that these matters would be fully investigated.
However the processes at local level for the preparation and delivery of postal votes is for returning officers and their staff. They make the contractual arrangements that they judge appropriate for their area. They are well aware of the tight timescales involved in getting out the papers to voters.
When the electoral commission reports I will of course examine whether there are steps the government can take to help ensure that the postal vote problems that certainly beset regions such as Highland, Dumfries and Galloway, among others, does not happen again.
Finally Mr Speaker if I may turn to the issue of e-counting. In 2005 the Scottish Government approached the Scotland Office to discuss the option of using e-counting at the combined poll. This arose mainly because of the benefits of handling a count of ballots under the Single Transferable Vote method. Manual count of STV would take many days and be highly complex. My predecessor as Secretary of State after careful assessment of advice gave an agreement in principle to the option but stressed the need for systematic testing and evaluation of the equipment and software.
This took place throughout late 2005 and into 2006 up to the final procurement decisions. Many tests and demonstrations were held for electoral administrators, political parties, special interest groups and others. Various contingencies were tested including power failures and ballot papers that had been creased or folded.
The process was led by a steering group comprising of officials from the Scotland Office, the Scottish Government and the Scottish Parliament, as well as representatives from COSLA, the Association of Electoral Administrators, the Society of Local Authority Administrators and Lawyers, the Scottish Assessors Association, and the Society of Local Authority Chief Executives
I am advised that none of these simulations gave any evidence of the kind or scale of problems we saw in some centres on Thursday night and Friday morning.
Clearly this is an issue which will be central to the Electoral Commissions report.
Mr Speaker, there are clearly a number of issues that need to be explored in relation to the problems encountered in the conduct of these elections. The Electoral Commission must now be allowed to undertake its statutory review which, as I have said will be available by the summer. I will, of course, update the House at that stage in light of their conclusions.