NORTHERN IRELAND (LOCAL ELECTIONS) ORDER 1977 (Hansard, 17 February 1977)

§ The MINISTER of STATE, DEPARTMENT of EDUCATION and SCIENCE (Lord Donaldson of Kingsbridge)
My Lords, I beg to move that the Northern Ireland (Local Elections) Order 1977, a draft of which was laid before this House on 2nd February, be approved.
The next general election to district councils in Northern Ireland will be held on 18th May this year, and the purpose of this order is to provide for these and subsequent elections. Proportional representation was introduced on an experimental basis for the 1973 local general elections, and the provisions of Article 4 of the Electoral Law (Northern Ireland) Order 1972, which provided that the single transferable vote system of proportional representation be used, applied only to the 1973 elections and to by-elections for councils elected at them. Parliament subsequently made permanent provision for the single transferable vote system of proportional representation to be used at Northern Ireland Assembly elections, and Article 4 of this order provides for this system to be used at all future district council elections.
The Local Government (Northern Ireland) Act 1972 provides that each ward shall return one member. As proportional representation is being used, it is necessary to group wards into multi-member district electoral areas, and Article 3 makes such provision. These areas are prescribed in Schedule 1. Article 5 relates to candidates. It provides that a candidate will be nominated for a district electoral area; the number 1756 of councillors to be returned will be the same as the number of wards in that area, and that a candidate will not lose his deposit if at any stage of the count he receives at least one-quarter of the quota.
Before the 1973 elections candidates at local elections could not send election addresses post-free. This concession was introduced for the 1973 elections because the proportional representation system of voting greatly enlarged electoral areas, and also because personal canvassing by all candidates throughout some electoral areas was not possible because of the security situation. These factors have not altered, and Article 5 continues this provision. Article 5 also makes consequential amendments to the Local Government (Northern Ireland) Act 1972.
There was provision in the 1973 Electoral Law Order for unrestricted postal voting. The reduction in the number of polling stations in some areas because of the security situation made it difficult for some electors to vote in person, and in addition there was a fear that electors in certain areas would be intimidated into boycotting the poll. There are now sufficient polling stations in all areas for electors to vote in person without undue difficulty, and the fears of intimidation have diminished. It is generally agreed that there is now no need for unrestricted postal voting, and Article 6 of this order restricts postal voting to Service voters or those who, because of physical disability, the nature of their work or religious convictions, are unlikely to be able to vote in person. This follows the equivalent law in Great Britain.
Limitations on candidates' expenses at local elections in Northern Ireland, particularly those applying to joint candidates, are generally lower than those applicable to local government candidates in England and Wales, and representations were made by Northern Ireland Parties for them to be raised. Article 7 brings the limits into line with those applying at local elections in England and Wales.
Articles 8 and 9 deal with casual vacancies and continue the current practice. Article 8 provides that district councillors may by unanimous decision appoint a suitably qualified person to fill a casual vacancy. Article 9 provides for an election to be held should the district councillors fail to appoint someone under 1757 Article 8. Schedule 2 to the order sets out the rules under which local elections shall be conducted. In effect this order continues the provisions relating to the 1973 local elections and subsequent by-elections, except in regard to postal voting, which it is now proposed to limit in the same way as in Great Britain. My Lords, I beg to move.

§ Lord BELSTEAD
My Lords, I support the passage of this order, but I have one question I should like to ask the noble Lord. I realise that the provisions of Schedule 1, which sets out the electoral areas and the sub-division of those areas into wards, have been included so that wards can be grouped into multi-member district areas. What I am not quite clear about is whether the ward boundaries have been changed since the last district council elections. It is not a matter of great moment, and if the noble Lord has not got the answer now possibly he could let me know later. I also welcome Article 6. Speaking for myself, I was never very happy about unrestricted postal voting facilities. They may have been designed in order to try to meet a danger, but I think unrestricted postal voting can in itself create certain problems. I was most pleased to hear the noble Lord say that that matter is now on all fours with the arrangement in Great Britain.
There are two areas of rather more general interest which this quite large order raises. The first is the matter which the noble Lord referred to at the beginning of his remarks—namely, the system of proportional representation by the single transferable vote, which is provided for in Article 4. Leaving aside the case either for or against proportional representation, I know—because I have seen it in operation—that the single transferable vote system has not caused the voters in Northern Ireland any apparent perplexity when they come to cast their votes at the polling stations in Ulster. I think I am right in saying that proportional representation has operated in Northern Ireland in the past. Whether or not it would work as smoothly if it were suddenly introduced 1758 into Great Britain is something about which one can only hazard a guess.
The other general matter, which is far more serious and which I know the Government understand very well, is the whole state of local government in Northern Ireland today. Probably the noble Lord would agree that the main local government services—education, libraries, health and social services, to mention but four—are today administered in Northern Ireland by boards whose members comprise partly elected councillors and partly persons who have been nominated. These boards were set up as a result of the MacCrory Report, and started their lives in 1973 under the then Conservative Government.
No one is happy about that situation now that there is no devolved Government in Northern Ireland. Indeed, Sir Patrick MacCrory has, in print in the newspapers, said that if he had known that there would be no devolved government, he and his committee would not have reported in the way in which they did. It is fair to say that the Government of the day in 1973 would probably have thought again about the setting up of the boards had they known that there would be no devolved government some time later. I appreciate that the Government do not want to unscramble this new set-up, but I ask the Minister to bear in mind that the situation, whereby local government electors feel that there is no totally elected body responsible for the main local government services, is not satisfactory. It could be held that this is not the best preparation for a return to devolved government in Northern Ireland.
I hope that the noble Lord does not mind those few additional words because that was something that needed to be said during our discussion of this order. With those few words, I support the passage of the order today.

§ Lord DONALDSON of KINGS-BRIDGE
My Lords, I am grateful to the noble Lord for his support and for his extension of the discussion outside the realms of the order itself.
His first question relating to ward boundaries fell within legitimate discussion. The answer is that they have not been changed. I turn to his remarks on proportional representation. Although 1759 this is also outside the discussion, proportional representation has worked well and is well understood. I do not deny that there is some discomfort in Northern Ireland—or there was when I was there not so very long ago—at the absence of their own elected representatives. However, it is all the more important that the local elections should take place without a hitch, and this order is designed to ensure that that happens.