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

I thank noble Lords for their observations about this statutory instrument, which I shall deal with in order. First, I shall address the points raised by the noble Duke, the Duke of Montrose, concerning whether there will be enough space in the offices of returning officers for storage of the additional material. I can confirm that matters will remain as they are: namely, that destruction will take place after one year, and therefore it is unlikely that there will be a massive addition to the documentation that will be retained. I respectfully agree with him that the purpose of this instrument is tidy up these matters substantially, primarily by moving from the sheriff clerk’s offices to those of returning officers. The noble Lord, Lord Maclennan, encouraged me to ensure that matters in relation to this instrument are expedited. I can confirm that it will come into force, together with the relative provision in the 2009 Act, when the instrument is made. I understand that that is likely to take place either this coming Wednesday or next Monday, after which two further days must elapse. I trust that that gives him some confidence that expedition will be to the fore. In relation to matters that may have been mentioned in another place regarding difficulties of access, I am unaware of what that might actually relate to. On fees, no changes are proposed. The approach that has been taken is that of trying to recover reasonable costs and is the same guidance that will obtain pursuant to this instrument. If the noble Lord wishes for clarification, I can confirm that this will not be directed as some sort of fund-raising exercise. The noble Lord, Lord Martin, wanted to know which sheriff clerks were particularly tried by the current arrangements. I am afraid that I cannot give names and numbers, but I assure him that there have been difficulties with the present arrangements and that this is a widespread view held in sheriff clerk’s offices, which are normally set up to deal with the business of the sheriff clerk. They are not confident that they are able to deal with these particular functions. The noble Lord may remember the problem that rose following the Glenrothes by-election when the marked register went missing. Issues such as that have raised a real problem. We hope that this will not be a strain on local authorities. Consultation is taking place with the Electoral Commission, the electoral authorities and, of course, the political parties. No particular perceived strain has been identified. There is continual monitoring of what goes on with the electoral authorities and, if such a strain were to emerge, further fine tuning may be brought to bear. I entirely share the noble Lord’s concern that the geography of Scotland can put considerable burdens on people in terms of travelling, but these problems are pretty much the same for the sheriff courts, which are similarly distributed throughout fair Caledonia. In any event, returning officers’ offices have already had to deal with local authority elections and European elections, so it is unlikely that geography will create a particular problem. I hope that deals with the issues that have been raised by noble Lords. Motion agreed.