Transparency: Publishing the Cost of Elections Friday 30 - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

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

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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)

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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

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Information to be published

✓ Returning Officers’ fees ✓ Returning Officers’ expenses ✓ Candidate mailings ✓ Centrally funded postal ‘sweeps’ ✓ Forfeited candidate deposits ✗ Electoral Commission costs ✗ Party/candidate costs ✗ Campaign broadcasts (nominal)

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Headline costs (E, W & G)

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£94 million

paid to Returning Officers in fees for services

£2 million

spent on the conduct of the 2014 European Parliamentary elections paid to Returning Officers for expenses incurred running the poll

£56 million

paid to Royal Mail for delivery of candidate mailings

£36 million

Other key figures

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393

actual expenditure as a proportion of allocated funding

85%

counting areas for which costs will be published average cost per registered elector

£2.03

average cost per vote cast

£5.73

Next steps

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Circulate draft report for thoughts and feedback Share data to be published with ROs to confirm accuracy Clear report and data with Ministers and territorial offices Share finalised report with ROs, Electoral Commission, AEA, SOLACE Publish report on gov.uk and dataset

• n data.gov.uk

Questions and discussion

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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

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