§ Mr. AncramTo ask the Secretary of State for Scotland (1) what assessment he has made of the effect of the use of split-ticket voting in the election for a Scottish Parliament under the provisions of the Scotland Bill on the objectives of Government policy as set out in the White Paper, Scotland's Parliament (Cm 3658); [34582]
(2) what measures he is taking to prevent or discourage split-ticket voting in the elections for the Scottish Parliament in 1999. [34583]
§ Mr. McLeish[holding answer 16 March 1998]: It will be for the electorate to decide how they wish to use their votes in the elections to the Scottish Parliament and it would be pointless to speculate on whether voters may cast their votes for different parties. Ultimately, it is for the political parties to persuade voters to cast both their votes for the same party.