Question to the Northern Ireland Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government what is the estimated cost of holding new Assembly elections to the Northern Ireland Assembly.

The maximum amount that can be recovered by the Chief Electoral Officer in relation to the costs of an Assembly election is currently £4.4m and this is set out in The Northern Ireland Assembly Elections (Charges Order) 2022. This does not include the costs of candidates' free election mailings which is difficult to estimate as it depends on the number of candidates and the take up of mailings by candidates.

The Government plans to uprate the existing charges order and bring a new one into force in advance of the next Assembly election.

The Chief Constable of the Police Service for NI (PSNI) has said that he estimates the cost for a future Assembly election for the PSNI to be in the region of £670,000.