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

Lord Rennard Excerpts

Tuesday 14th February 2012 Grand Committee

I commend what is being said by the group chaired jointly by Graham Allen MP, and Sir Merrick Cockell to see whether they can offer something positive in this regard, so that one can see that this process really has been taken on board and is being carried forward. We do not divide on things in here and I certainly would not want to divide on this on the Floor the House, but I hope that my protest is not out of place.

[Lord Rennard]

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.

[Lord Grocott]

My Lords, I am the first person to speak who is not an honorary vice-president of the Local Government Association, but I find myself in complete agreement—it is a new coalition—with the noble Lords, Lord Jenkin and Lord Rennard. I come to this entirely fresh because I did not take part in the Localism Bill; I was completely exhausted after taking part in the Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Bill, in which much of the time was spent trying to persuade the Government not to spend £100 million on a referendum on the alternative vote system. I am not sorry now that we had the referendum because I was very pleased with the result, but that does not justify the expenditure.

To pick up on the point made by the noble Lord, Lord Rennard, although we argued about pretty well everything else, there was no argument, so far as I can recall, about the decision that it should be the Electoral Commission that decided the language of the referendum. You have to have a neutral body deciding what question is going to be put.

As I said, I have come to this absolutely clean, but with a certain scepticism about new-fangled constitutional arrangements. When I started reading the detail of this—and, in particular, when I saw this document priced at £18.50—my reaction was, “What a spectacular waste of money, time and energy”. I would love to know how many hundreds if not thousands of hours of Civil Service time were spent producing this—they are looking weary behind the Minister, though no doubt they are 100 per cent loyal—not to mention the cost of the referendum. I would like the Minister to tell us, should there be a referendum, what the estimated cost would be for the average local authority to carry it out. We are all strapped for cash at the moment.

I hear a great deal about the need to consult the local electorate. I can only say that my experience of local government, not only as a councillor but also as someone who took a tremendous interest in local government in my area in all the time I was a Member of Parliament, has been that councillors of all parties spend inordinate amounts of time angst-ing—if that is a word—about the level of council tax, about whether it would be acceptable to the electorate and about what would be the likely outcome of a future election if they did not listen to what the electorate were saying. Councillors are usually in a pretty good position to make that assessment. Why we need this other, elaborate structure grafted on top of the established principles of local accountability I really do not know, particularly when it is likely to be at considerable expense—and then when I read the details, this almost defies satirical comment.

“It is possible for multiple council tax referendums”,

we are told in the advisory note,

“to be held within the same area … a billing authority could have to hold a referendum on its own excessive increase as well as that of a Police Authority, Fire and Rescue Authority, County Council and a number of local precepting authorities in its area”.

I cannot believe that I am reading that. Is it actually possible that there could be six, seven or eight referendums in the same area at the same time? I am coming to it fresh, so maybe there is a point that I have overlooked. I cannot believe that anyone is seriously advocating that as a sensible way of proceeding locally.

I cannot see what this is doing that cannot be done through the normal local electoral process. I am sure that it will cost money—perhaps the Minister can tell us. I am particularly concerned—I will not spell out again what the noble Lord, Lord Rennard, said, because he said it very effectively—about the fire that the Government are playing with, in the light of all that might be happening in Scotland, by saying that they will not accept what the Electoral Commission is saying about the wording of a referendum. That is a pretty risky route to follow. I do not know how they would explain to the Government in Scotland, let alone anyone else, why it is right for the Electoral Commission or other neutral body to determine the wording of the referendum there when they have blood on their hands by apparently disregarding the Electoral Commission’s advice here. It is a route that I would strongly advise them not to pursue.

I have not heard the Minister’s passionate advocacy of why this will transform life as we know it and bring happiness to local areas, which is usually what you hope for when you see new legislation coming along. This seems to me a waste of time and a waste of money.