Transparency: Publishing the Cost of Elections Friday 30 September, 1 Horse Guards Road
Introduction • Ministers have approved publication of the cost of national elections resourced from the Consolidated Fund • Will begin with report and data on 2014 European Parliamentary elections – intended for publication in November 2016 – first polls run under new funding model following 2013 funding review – dataset is nearly complete, pending small number of outstanding settlements • Aim to evolve into routine programme, continuing with reports on 2015 UKPGE and 2016 PCC elections in 2017 2 Transparency: Publishing the Cost of Elections
Proposed publication Transparency report: • foreword by the Minister for the Constitution • explanation of funding arrangements for European Parliamentary elections • summary and description of conduct costs • summary tables including per elector/vote costs and comparison to MRAs • costs by heading by counting area (local, regional, national) Returning Officers’ services and expenses dataset: • costs by subheading by counting area (LRO and RRO) 3 Transparency: Publishing the Cost of Elections
Reasons to publish • Increased transparency on the democratic process • Increased accountability for Government and ROs • Enable sharing of best-practice amongst ROs • Provide improved detail and context for already published information 4 Transparency: Publishing the Cost of Elections
Information to be published ✓ Returning Officers’ fees ✗ Electoral Commission costs ✓ Returning Officers’ expenses ✗ Party/candidate costs ✓ Candidate mailings ✗ Campaign broadcasts (nominal) ✓ Centrally funded postal ‘sweeps’ ✓ Forfeited candidate deposits 5 5 Presentation title - edit in Header and Footer Transparency: Publishing the Cost of Elections
Headline costs (E, W & G) £2 million £94 million spent on the conduct of paid to Returning the 2014 European Officers in fees for Parliamentary elections services £56 million £36 million paid to Returning paid to Royal Mail for Officers for expenses delivery of candidate incurred running the poll mailings 6 Transparency: Publishing the Cost of Elections
Other key figures 85% 393 actual expenditure as a counting areas for which proportion of allocated costs will be published funding £2.03 £5.73 average cost per average cost per vote registered elector cast 7 Transparency: Publishing the Cost of Elections
Next steps Circulate draft report Clear report and data Publish report on for thoughts and with Ministers and gov.uk and dataset feedback territorial offices on data.gov.uk Share data to be Share finalised report with ROs, published with ROs Electoral Commission, AEA, to confirm accuracy SOLACE 8 Transparency: Publishing the Cost of Elections
Questions and discussion 9 Transparency: Publishing the Cost of Elections
Contact Ash Smith, Head of Elections Funding ash.smith@cabinetoffice.gov.uk 0207 271 8991 Joe Reddington, Senior Policy Adviser, Elections Funding joe.reddington@cabinetoffice.gov.uk 0207 271 8454 10 Transparency: Publishing the Cost of Elections
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