HC Deb 03 March 1989 vol 148 c332W
Mr. Maclennan

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what consideration he has given to making it a statutory requirement for official poll cards to be issued for parish and community council elections; and if he will make a statement.

Mr. Douglas Hogg

Poll cards have to be issued at all parish and community elections where, as is the case with the great majority of such elections, they are combined with the poll for another election. Consideration was given, at the time of the making of the Local Elections (Parishes and Communities) Rules 1986, to making a poll card mandatory at all parish and community elections, but this would have obliged parishes and communities to meet relatively substantial costs even where they felt they could not afford to.