Voting Methods: Pilot Schemes

Mrs. Lait
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what plans he has for voting pilots in the 2009 local elections; and what assessment he has made of the effect of moving the date of the 2009 local elections to the date of the elections to the European Parliament on the feasibility of holding such pilots.

Mr. Wills
The Secretary of State for Justice is obliged by section 10 of the Representation of the People Act 2000 to consider any application from a local authority to run an electoral pilot. The provisions of the Act restrict piloting to local government elections only: it would not therefore be possible for any pilots to take place if the English local government elections were moved to be combined with the date of the European Parliamentary elections in June 2009. The Government published a consultation document on the combination of those elections on 20 May 2008 the consultation period closed on 11 August. The consultation paper is available at

http://www.communities.gov.uk/publications/localgovernment/2009electionsconsultation