24 August 2020

Election costs and Value for money?

It is the norm in London that the Chief Executive of the borough is the Returning Officer (i.e. responsible for the smooth running of the voting process) for that borough. That gives them easy access to a pool of staff who can act as polling station clerks etc plus school and other council connected premises to use as polling stations.

The work of returning officers is overseen by the Electoral Commission. Their website tells Mr Mustard that one of their jobs is to give guidance and support to Returning Officers, so they can run the election well, which Mr Mustard hopes includes some oversight and audit of spending to ensure that value for money is being obtained. After all, the sums involved are not trivial. The total cost of the 2018 elections in Barnet were £666,312 (including vat where applicable). A heck of a lot of money.

Mr Mustard decided to have a look at one of the major costs, the hire of the premises used for the count. He obtained information from 4 boroughs and here it is.


On the face of it, the premises chosen for the count look to be poor value. Even if vat was excluded from the Croydon cost it would only rise to £28,890 so there is a potential saving to be had of at least £11,700 which any decent returning officer would seek to save. All returning officers should take note of the much more reasonable sum that the returning officer of Enfield paid and look to follow suit. Mr Mustard will be asking the returning officer, John Hooton, to justify his choice.

Have you got a large hall that might be suitable for use as the election council venue. If so, email john.hooton@barnet.gov.uk and ask him to consider your venue for the next election count, coming up in May 2021.

Yours frugally

Mr Mustard

n.b. Each elector could cast 3 votes which explains why votes cast sometimes exceeds the number of people eligible to vote.

2 comments:

  1. I've been in meetings where count venues are decided and there are practical as well as cost considerations.

    One of the major issues is size - any alternative venue will require at least the same floor space as the existing centre (for Barnet, 5 x tennis courts + 'edge space' per photos of the site) and there are likely to be very few buildings of that size available. There also needs to be sufficient parking for (probably) 120-150 counting staff and (again a finger-in-the-air estimate) 360 candidates and assorted hangers-on. This doesn't count any centre staff which need to be paid for. As well as a main hall, there may also need to be other rooms available (e.g. for media or waiting rooms).

    What access to the internet is available as there are various processes that require or are expedited by access to the internet?

    The timing of the count is also important - is it held overnight or next day - which decision has both health and safety and cost considerations as, at an overnight count, some staff will have been awake for getting on for 24 hours straight. Even an overnight count will require some daytime setup/cleardown for which charges will be made. Whatever count is done, you need everything at the venue to be set up by 10pm so ballot boxes can be received at close of poll.

    The location of the venue is also important - you don't want the distances to drive to be too far (or too long), so a relatively centrally located venue is better than one off at one extremity.

    There may also be ancillary costs included in the hire - one potential count venue I saw wanted the floor to be carpeted to protect the sports hall floor from people wearing what (for the usual use of the hall) would be inappropriate footwear. This was estimated in itself to be around £8-10k for the size of carpet required.

    For national elections, the costs are scrutinised by central government who will push back if they think the costs are unreasonable. If this venue has passed the government accountants (who will look at count costs from across the country), it is not going to be seen as over payment. For local elections, it is a decision for the Returning Officer to make as to where the count will take place and for the Council to scrutinise. Regular elections will be budgeted for as part of the Council's standard budgeting process.

    The count venue for the 2021 elections has already been set as these will be London Assembly elections where the count is centralised (either at Ally Pally or eXcel). The next scheduled, Barnet funded local elections are due to be held in 2022.

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  2. Thanks for the extra info especially that the GLA count takes place at Ally Pally. For borough council elections Copthall isn't at all central within the borough although (being even handed) I'm not convinced that distance is a great problem as polls close at 10pm when roads are quiet.

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