The Legal Challenge...Audit Commission Complaint

North East No Campaign
Frederick Street
Sunderland
SR1 1NF
16th September 2004

Dear Sir,

Referendum on a Regional Assembly in the North East

I refer to my letter to you dated 7th September, asking you to investigate my complaint about the money wrongly spent by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, issuing advertisements and leaflets which are inaccurate and misleading and which promote a particular political view.

Two further inaccuracies have now come to light; both are contained in the leaflet entitled "Have Your Say", which I enclosed with my original letter:

1.On the page headed "A new opportunity for the North East", there is a section entitled "How would the new elected assembly operate?" It reads

"The Government intends that a North East assembly would consist of around 25 elected members to represent different views and parts of the region. They would be elected – as in Scotland, Wales and London – by a system of proportional representation to help prevent domination by a single party.."

This is a lie.

The Draft Regional Assemblies Bill, section 3, states that an assembly is to consist of both constituency members and regional members; the constituency members will be members for electoral areas (known as constituencies) within the region, whilst the regional members will be members for the whole region.

Section 10 states that "each constituency member of an assembly is to be returned under the simple majority system".

In the Explanatory Notes, point number 15, it states that "the precise division between the number of each type of elected member would be decided by an order of the Secretary of State but it is expected that the constituency members would make up the majority"; thus, in other words, the bulk of the members will be elected on the first–past–the post system, not by proportional representation.

The statements in the leaflet are untrue.

2. The second additional accuracy relates to the part of the leaflet which covers local government reorganisation in County Durham. (In Northumberland and Durham, voters will be asked in the referendum a second question on the alteration of the current system). Two options are given to the voters, A and B, and the leaflet states that the Government will pay the upfront costs; "these costs should be less than £37 million for option A and £38 million for option B".

This is a lie.

It has now come to light that the costs for option B will actually be £47 million. The electorate is being asked to vote on the basis of incorrect information.

These are further examples of the misuse of taxpayers’ money: please investigate.

Yours faithfully

Mrs J. A. Wallace
Chairman
North East No Campaign

National Audit Office

3rd FloorHigham House

New Bridge Street West

Newcastle-Upon-Tyne

NE1 8AU

Cc Douglas Stewart, Head of Referendums, The Electoral Commission