To ask the hon. Member for Gosport, representing the Speaker’s Committee on the Electoral Commission pursuant to his answer of 15 January 2007, Official Report, column 792W, on political party expenditure, whether the Electoral Commission has made any estimate of the amount spent by candidates in (a) the local government elections of May 2006 and (b) previous local elections. (123900)

The Electoral Commission informs me that it does not make estimates of the amount spent by candidates in local government elections. Candidates and their election agents must submit returns of their election expenses to the returning officer, who then makes them available for public inspection. The Commission discharges its statutory duty to monitor compliance with the controls on spending by local government candidates in England and Wales by reviewing samples of returns.