HC Deb 12 March 1998 vol 308 cc340-1W
Mr. Clappison

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to his answer of 9 March 1998,Official Report, columns 17–18, to the hon. Member for Basildon (Angela Smith), what evidence he had estimated in support of his statement concerning the failure of voter preferences for individual candidates to be translated into electoral success under the Belgium electoral system prior to his comments on the Belgian electoral system on 25 November. [34189]

Mr. George Howarth

As my right hon. Friend said during the Second Reading debate on the European Parliamentary Elections Bill on 25 November 1997,Official Report, columns 803–17, he had looked at the operation of the Belgian electoral system. He recognised that, by the very nature of the way the system operates, those candidates who gained the most personal votes would not necessarily be elected.

Mr. Clappison

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to his answer of 9 March 1998,Official Report, columns 17–18, to the hon. Member for Basildon (Angela Smith), (a) when the numerical examples he has placed in the Library were worked out and (b) when he received them. [34188]

Mr. George Howarth

The numerical examples were worked out by Home Office officials on 6 March and received by my right hon. Friend on the same day.