Regional Assemblies (Preparations) Act 2003

9 Provision of information to voters

(1) Subsection (2) applies if—

(a) the Secretary of State makes an order under section 1 to cause a referendum to be held in a region about the establishment of an elected assembly for the region, and

(b) before the appropriate day the Electoral Commission have not designated (in relation to each possible outcome of the referendum) an organisation under section 108 of the 2000 Act (organisations to whom assistance is available under section 110 of that Act).

(2) The Electoral Commission may take such steps as they think appropriate to provide for persons entitled to vote in the referendum such information as the Commission think is likely to promote awareness among those persons about the arguments for and against each answer to the referendum question.

(3) The appropriate day is—

(a) the 43rd day of the referendum period if one or more applications under section 109 of the 2000 Act (applications for assistance under section 110 of that Act) is made before the 29th day of the referendum period in relation to each possible outcome of the referendum;

(b) the 29th day of the referendum period in any other case.

(4) But if a Minister of the Crown makes an order under section 109(6) of the 2000 Act the appropriate day is the day specified in the order for the purposes of this section.

(5) Subsection (6) applies if the Secretary of State makes an order under section 2(2) to cause a referendum to be held about the government’s proposals for the structure of local government.

(6) The Electoral Commission may take such steps as they think appropriate to provide for persons entitled to vote in the referendum such information as the Commission think is likely to promote awareness among those persons about the arguments relating to the options in those proposals.

(7) Information provided in pursuance of this section must be provided by the means the Commission think is most likely to secure (in the most cost effective way) that the information comes to the notice of all persons entitled to vote in the referendum.