16.—(1) Where the polls at an Assembly general election and an ordinary local government election are to be taken on the same date, they shall be taken together.
(2) Where the polls at an Assembly election and local government election for related areas are to be taken on the same date but are not required by paragraph (1) to be taken together, they may nevertheless be so taken if the returning officer for each election thinks fit.
(3) For the purposes of paragraph (2), two areas are related if one is coterminous with or situated wholly or partly within the other.
(4) Where the polls at an Assembly general election and an ordinary local government election are combined under paragraph (1) the cost of taking the combined polls (excluding any cost solely attributable to one election) and any cost attributable to their combination shall be apportioned among the elections in such proportions as the Assembly may by order specify; and an order under this paragraph may specify different proportions in relation to different functions.
(5) Where the polls at an Assembly election and another election are combined under paragraph (2) the cost of taking the combined polls (excluding any cost solely attributable to one election) and any cost attributable to their combination shall be apportioned equally among the elections.
(6) The power to make orders under paragraph (4) shall be exercised by statutory instrument and for the purposes of section 1 of the Statutory Instruments Act 1946(1) this provision shall have effect as if contained in an Act of Parliament..
(7) Schedule 4 (which makes provision in connection with the combination of polls at Assembly and local government elections) has effect but, where the poll at an Assembly election is combined with a mayoral election, only Parts 1 and 2 of Schedule 4 shall apply.
1946 c. 36. By virtue of section 1(1A) inserted into that Act of 1946 by paragraph 2 of Schedule 12 to the Government of Wales Act 1998, references in section 1(1) of that Act of 1946 to a Minister of the Crown are construed as including references to the National Assembly for Wales constituted by that Act of 1998 and by virtue of section 1(1A) of that Act of 1946 substituted by paragraph 2 of Schedule 10 to the Government of Wales Act 2006, references to a Minister of the Crown are construed as including references to the Welsh Ministers. see footnote to the definition of “the Assembly” in article 2(1) as to the vesting in the Welsh Ministers of the function of “the Assembly” under article 16(4).