The Northern Ireland Elections (Returning Officer’s Charges) Order 1996

1.—(1) This Order may be cited as the Northern Ireland Elections (Returning Officer’s Charges) Order 1996 and shall come into force on the day after it is made.

(2) This Order extends to Northern Ireland only.

2.—(1) For the purposes of paragraph (a) of section 29(3) of the Representation of the People Act 1983, as applied by article 3 of, and Schedule 1 to, the Elections (Northern Ireland) Order 1996, (which provides that a returning officer is entitled to recover his charges in respect of services properly rendered or expenses properly incurred for or in connection with an election under the Northern Ireland (Entry to Negotiations, etc.) Act 1996(1) if the services or expenses are of a kind specified in an order made under that provision and the charges are reasonable), expenses of a kind described in paragraphs 1(1), 2(1), 3(1) and 4(1) of Part A of the Schedule to this Order (hereafter referred to as “expenses specified in Part A of the Schedule”) and expenses of a kind described in Part B of the Schedule to this Order are hereby specified.

(2) The maximum recoverable amounts at a contested election in respect of the expenses specified in Part A of the Schedule are hereby specified as the amounts set out in the right-hand column of that Part in respect of each entry set out opposite thereto in the left-hand column of that Part.

(3) The maximum recoverable amount at an uncontested election is here specified as £853.19 in respect of the expenses specified in Part A of the Schedule.

(4) In the Schedule to this Order—

(a) “election” means an election under the Northern Ireland (Entry to Negotiations, etc.) Act 1996; and

(b) any reference to the register of electors is to the register of electors used at the election at which the expenses were incurred and to that register as first published.

P. B. B. Mayhew

One of Her Majesty’s Principal Secretaries of State

Northern Ireland Office

23rd May 1996