Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask His Majesty's Government why the deadline for payment of parish council election costs has been brought forward into the same year as the elections; and what assessment they have made of the implications of this change for the ability of parish councils to accurately predict their budgets.

The costs of any local elections are to be met locally. Elections (whether to principal local authorities, or to parish and town councils) are administered by returning officers, who recover their expenditure of the election from the principal authority. The principal authority may then, if it chooses, require the parish council in turn to meet those costs.

It is for each principal authority to decide whether to require payment for all or part of the cost of a parish election or by-election, and to set deadlines for this payment.

Parish councils are responsible for ensuring that they have sufficient income to meet their costs and can do so by charging a precept on council tax. We recognise that parish councils do not take the decision to increase precepts lightly.