Election costs, charges and expenses

Elections & National Referendums

In accordance with the provisions of various Acts of Parliament including The Representation of the People Act 1983, together with various statutory Instruments, ALL 'National' Elections and Referendums are funded centrally from the Consolidated Fund via the relevant Government Department e.g..

• Cabinet Office ~  European and Parliamentary Elections
• Home Office ~ Police & Crime Commissioner Elections
• The Electoral Commission ~ National Referendums

The funding body agree the levels of fees and expenses that allow a budget to be created to enable the Returning Officer to run the Election / Referendum in accordance with the relevant legal provisions.

Local Elections & Referendums

In accordance with the Representation of the People's Act 1983 the cost of local elections are met from the local authority's budgets

The local authority is required to appoint a Returning Officer to conduct these elections on their behalf and the Returning Officer is personally (not corporately) responsible for the management of elections. Each local authority is required to place the services of its staff at the disposal of the Returning Officer to help run the election.

Even though the Returning Officer must be an employee of the council at the time of an election their responsibility is completely separate

In order to run a local election the Returning Officer in East Lindsey needs to employ and pay up to 600  additional staff with different levels of responsibility. It is important that this is done fairly and transparently. In order to achieve this, the Returning Officers across Lincolnshire ALL use a common schedule of fees and charges which they all use to make election payments. This ensures that there is a consistent approach for everyone.

A copy of the scale of costs, charges and expenses is available to download on this page.