These Regulations provide for the total amounts that are recoverable by returning officers for their services and expenses in connection with the conduct of elections for membership of the Scottish Parliament.

Regional returning officers are responsible for receiving regional lists of candidates from registered political parties, receiving nominations of individual candidates to be regional members, calculating regional figures to allocate regional member seats to registered political parties and individual candidates and coordinating the functions of constituency returning officers in their region that relate to the poll to return regional members.

Constituency returning officers are responsible for all other functions in connection with the elections, including the counting of votes for the return of constituency members and the counting of the regional votes.

Under article 18 of the Scottish Parliament (Elections etc.) Order 2015 constituency returning officers and regional returning officers are entitled to recover their charges for services rendered and expenses incurred provided they were necessarily rendered or incurred and do not exceed a specified total amount. Article 18 also enables the Scottish Ministers to specify total amounts for particular types of services or expenses and to make provision about submission of accounts.

Regulations 3, 4 and 5 specify, for constituency returning officers, the total amount that may be recovered, the total amount for specified services and the total amount for specified expenses. For contested elections, the amounts are specified separately for each constituency in the Schedule. The total amount for specified expenses is reduced by 20% if a constituency poll is combined with another poll. For uncontested elections the amounts are as specified in those regulations and apply to all constituencies.

Regulations 6, 7 and 8 make equivalent provision for regional returning officers. The amounts apply for each region. Different amounts apply depending on whether the Scottish parliamentary election is contested or uncontested.

Regulation 9 makes provision for the timescales within which accounts are to be submitted and provides that supporting material, such as receipts, must be provided if the Scottish Ministers request it.

A full impact assessment has not been published for these Regulations as they have no impact on the private sector or voluntary organisations.