Issue - meetings

To consider report 89/11 of the head of legal and democratic services. 

The committee considered report 89/11 of the head of legal and democratic services setting out progress on the implementation of the scrutiny committee’s recommendations on the review of the 2011 local elections.

The committee noted that:

1.    Compensation payments received from Paragon in respect of failings in the 2011 elections had to be allocated against the correct expenditure and had taken some time to apportion.

2.    The elections team were currently running a parish council by-election for Vale and a district council and a county council by-election for South. A different printer had been appointed for these by-elections. Agents and relevant district councillors would be alerted when the postal votes were issued and a sample of recipients would be asked to notify the council when they received their postal vote.

3.    A number of recommendations from the independent review had been implemented. The returning officer was content to involve councillors in the process up to the point where their role as the elected representatives on the council stopped. The public viewed the council as responsible for delivering the elections, and councillors could legitimately oversee the use of council resources and procedures.

4.    Count supervisors would be instructed in a consistent and clear method of counting split votes.

5.    Letters had been written to the Association of Electoral Administrators, the Electoral Commission, and local Members of Parliament as requested. No responses had been received but any response would be reported to the committee and the task group.

6.    A project plan and frequent team meetings would be in place in good time before the police and crime commissioner elections. The risk registers would be updated for this election. However detailed planning was not possible at this stage due to a lack of national guidance about the conduct of these elections. The procurement for the printing for this election would be carried out later in the year and would specify information to be reported to the returning officer at each stage.

The committee commented that:

·       Communication with agents and candidates was crucial. Agents should be encouraged to pass information on to candidates. Candidates and agents could make matters worse by being uninformed but could assist the elections team in notifying the team of problems and explaining solutions and steps taken to the public.

·       The task group would oversee the process and resources allocated to elections and recommend the level of staffing, IT, resources required. It would also recommend a plan for an adequate communications strategy.

The committee noted the report and progress in implementing the recommendations, and asked for an update on the work of the task group at a future meeting.

To continue the committee’s consideration of the independent review report on the conduct of the 2011 local elections.  

Mr Tim Revell, Local Democracy Consultant, appointed to undertake the review, presented his report to the committee meeting held on 21 July 2011 and responded to questions.  Mr David Buckle, Returning Officer, and his deputy returning officers also answered questions.  However, the committee ran out of time to consider Mr Revell’s recommendations and deferred consideration to this meeting. 

Committee members are requested to bring their report with them to this meeting.  This formed part of the agenda for 21 July meeting.  

The Chair invited Members to ask questions of the officers, following on from the meeting which was held on 21 July. 

Members asked a series of questions, outlined below and the chief executive, head of legal and democratic services, democratic services manager and elections officer assisted in answering them.