Oral Answers to Questions

Hugh Bayley Excerpts

Thursday 13th October 2011 Commons Chamber

The hon. Member for South West Devon, representing the Speaker’s Committee on the Electoral Commission, was asked—

[Hugh Bayley (York Central) (Lab)]

7. What estimate the Electoral Commission has made of the cost of holding elections for police commissioners.

[Mr Gary Streeter (South West Devon)]

The Government included an estimate of the cost of holding elections for police and crime commissioners in May 2012 in their original impact assessment. When the Government proposed to move the date of the elections to November 2012, the commission advised Parliament that additional costs would arise from holding a stand-alone election and that it would be important to ensure adequate resources were in place. The commission has made no separate estimate of the cost of holding those elections.

[Hugh Bayley]

In North Yorkshire—just to give an example from one county—the Government have cut funding for the police from £54 million to £47 million in just two years. Will the hon. Gentleman make representations to the Electoral Commission to do all it can to reduce the cost of the elections and urge the Government to vire the money saved back into front-line policing?

[Mr Streeter]

I think the hon. Gentleman is raging against the policy rather than the Electoral Commission’s role in it. The costs are those incurred by the Government and local authorities, not the Electoral Commission, but I am sure that his plea for the cost of the elections to be minimised will be heard in the appropriate quarters.