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Treating
     79.  - (1) A person shall be guilty of a corrupt practice if he is guilty of treating.

    (2) A person shall be guilty of treating if he corruptly, by himself or by any other person, either before, during or after a Scottish parliamentary election, directly or indirectly gives or provides, or pays wholly or in part the expense of giving or providing, any meat, drink, entertainment or provision to or for any person - 

(a) for the purpose of corruptly influencing that person or any other person to vote or refrain from voting; or

(b) on account of that person or any other person having voted or refrained from voting, or being about to vote or refrain from voting.

    (3) Every elector or his proxy who corruptly accepts or takes any such meat, drink, entertainment or provision shall also be guilty of treating.

Undue influence
     80.  - (1) A person shall be guilty of a corrupt practice if he is guilty of undue influence.

    (2) A person shall be guilty of undue influence - 

(a) if he, directly or indirectly, by himself or by any other person on his behalf, makes use of or threatens to make use of any force, violence or restraint, or inflicts or threatens to inflict, by himself or by any other person, any temporal or spiritual injury, damage, harm or loss upon or against any person in order to induce or compel that person to vote or refrain from voting, or on account of that person having voted or refrained from voting; or

(b) if, by abduction, duress or any fraudulent device or contrivance, he impedes or prevents the free exercise of the franchise of an elector or proxy for an elector, or so compels, induces or prevails upon an elector or proxy for an elector either to vote or to refrain from voting.

Rights of creditors
     81. The provisions of this Part prohibiting - 

(a) payments and contracts for payments;

(b) the payment or incurring of election expenses in excess of the maximum amount allowed by this Order; or

(c) the incurring of expenses not authorised by an election agent,

do not affect the right of any creditor, who, when the contract was made or the expense was incurred, was ignorant of that contract or expense being in contraven tion of this Order.

Savings as to Scottish parliamentary elections
     82.  - (1) Where a person has been declared by others to be a candidate at a Scottish parliamentary election without his consent, nothing in this Part shall be construed to impose any liability on that person, unless he has afterwards given his assent to the declaration or has been nominated.

    (2) Nothing in this Part makes it illegal for an employer to permit any elector or proxy to absent himself from his employment for a reasonable time for the purpose of voting at the poll at a Scottish parliamentary election without having any deduction from their salaries or wage on account of their absence, if the permission - 

(a) is (so far as practicable without injury to the employer's business) given equally to all persons alike who are at the time in his employment; and

(b) is not given with a view to inducing any person to record his vote for any particular candidate or, as the case may be, registered party at the election; and

(c) is not refused to any person for the purpose of preventing him from recording his vote for any particular candidate or, as the case may be, registered party,

but this paragraph shall not be construed as making illegal any act which would not be illegal apart from this paragraph.

Interpretation of Part III
     83. In this Part, unless the context otherwise requires - 

"candidate" in relation to a Scottish parliamentary election, means a person who is - 

(a) elected to serve in the Parliament at the election;

(b) nominated as a candidate; or

(c) declared by himself or by others to be a candidate on or after publication of the notice of election;

"committee room" does not include any house or room occupied by a candidate as a dwelling, by reason only of the candidate transacting business there with his agents in relation to the election, and no room or building shall be deemed to be a committee room by reason only of the candidate or any agent of the candidate addressing in it electors, committee members or others;

"date of allowance of an authorised excuse" has the meaning given by article 53(9) above;

"declaration as to election expenses" means a declaration made under articles 48 or 49 above;

"disputed claim" has the meaning given by article 44(1) above as extended by article 45 above;

"election expenses", in relation to a Scottish parliamentary election, means expenses incurred, whether before, during or after the election, on account of or in respect of the conduct or management of the election;

"money" and "pecuniary reward" shall (except in article 78 and 79 above) be deemed to include - 

(a) any office, place or employment;

(b) any valuable security or other equivalent of money; and

(c) any valuable consideration,

and expressions referring to money shall be construed accordingly;

"payment" includes any pecuniary or other reward;

"personal expenses" as used with respect to the expenditure of any candidate in relation to any Scottish parliamentary election includes the reasonable travelling expenses of the candidate, and the reasonable expenses of his living at hotels or elsewhere for the purposes of and in relation to the election; and

"return as to election expenses" means a return (including the bills and receipts to be delivered with it) to be made under articles 46 and 47 above.

Computation of time for purposes of Part III
     84.  - (1) Where the day or last day on which anything is required or permitted to be done by or in pursuance of this Part is any of the days mentioned in paragraph (2) - 

(a) the requirement or permission shall be deemed to relate to the first day thereafter which is not one of those days; and

(b) in computing any period of not more than seven days for the purposes of this Part any of the days so mentioned shall be disregarded.

    (2) The days referred to in paragraph (1) above are a Saturday, Sunday, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, Good Friday, Easter Monday, a day which is a bank holiday in Scotland under the Banking and Financial Dealings Act 1971[10], or a day appointed for public thanksgiving or mourning.

(a) any modifications and exceptions specified in relation to those provisions in the right-hand column of that Schedule;

(b) paragraph (2) below; and

(c) any modifications necessary in consequence of those provisions,

apply for the purposes of a Scottish parliamentary election but only in relation to the election or return of a constituency member of the Scottish Parliament.

    (2) The provisions of the 1983 Act which are specified in the left hand column of Part II of Schedule 6 to this Order shall, subject to - 

(a) any modifications and exceptions specified in relation to those provisions in the right-hand column of that Schedule;

(b) paragraph (2) below; and

(c) any modifications necessary in consequence of those provisions,

apply for the purposes of a Scottish parliamentary election but only in relation to the election or return of a regional member of the Scottish Parliament.

    (3) Unless the context otherwise requires, in the provisions applied by Schedule 6 to this Order - 

(a) any provision relating to a local government election or local government electors and references in connection therewith (including a reference to a petition questioning an election under the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973) shall be disregarded;

(b) any reference to a parliamentary election (except the references specified in paragraph (c) below) shall be construed as a reference to a Scottish parliamentary election and any reference to a general election shall accordingly be construed as a reference to a Scottish parliamentary general election;

(c) any reference to a constituency (or parliamentary constituency) shall be construed - 


(i) in relation to any election or return of a constituency member, as a reference to a Scottish parliamentary constituency;

(ii) in relation to any election or return of a regional member, as a reference to a region;



(d) any reference to promoting or procuring the election of a candidate shall be construed as a reference to promoting or procuring the giving of a vote for a particular candidate or registered party at the election;

(e) any reference to a candidate, other than the one referred to in sub-paragraph (d) above, shall be construed as a reference to either - 



(i) a candidate on a registered party's regional list; or

(ii) an individual candidate,



as the case may be;

(f) any reference to a parliamentary elector shall be construed as a reference to an elector at a Scottish parliamentary election;

(g) any reference to a member in the context of a Member of Parliament shall be construed as a reference to a member of the Scottish Parliament;

(h) any reference to a parliamentary election petition (except in the context of the rota for the trial of parliamentary election petitions) shall be construed as a reference to a Scottish parliamentary election petition;

(i) any reference to the High Court shall be construed as a reference to the Court of Session and any reference to the County Court or a judge of that Court shall be construed as a reference to the sheriff court or Sheriff;

(j) any reference to the Director of Public Prosecutions or the Attorney General shall be construed as a reference to the Lord Advocate;

(k) any reference to a return in the context of a return to the writ of election (and the return to Parliament) shall be construed as a reference to the declaration of the result by the returning officer under rule 60 or, as the case may be, 64 of the Scottish Parliamentary Election Rules;

(l) any reference to an enactment or instrument made under an enactment shall be construed as a reference to that enactment or instrument as applied by this Part of this Order; and

(m) any references to an offence under the 1983 Act or to a practice (or payment, employment or hiring) made corrupt or illegal by any provision of that Act shall be construed, subject to any necessary modifications, as a reference to the offence under, or practice, payment, employment or hiring made illegal by the corresponding provision of this Order.

    (4) The references to "parliamentary election" to which paragraph (2)(b) above does not apply are those in section 160(4) of the 1983 Act and the first reference in section 160(5) of that Act.

(a) that the vacancy exists; and

(b) the date fixed for the poll at the election to fill that vacancy.

Vacancies: regional member seats
     87.  - (1) Where it comes to the notice of the Presiding Officer of the Scottish Parliament that the seat of a regional member who was returned from a registered party's regional list is vacant, he shall forthwith send a notice in accordance with paragraph (2) below to the regional returning officer for that region.

    (2) A notice under paragraph (1) above shall - 

(a) state that a vacancy exists; and

(b) set out the name of the person who had been returned in the seat which is vacant, together with the name of the registered party on whose regional list his name is included.

    (3) On receipt of a notice under paragraph (1) above, the regional returning officer shall ascertain the name of the person, if any, who is to fill the vacancy in accordance with section 10 of the 1998 Act as modified by article 88 below.

Modification of section 10 of the 1998 Act
     88. Section 10 of the 1998 Act shall be modified by substituting, for subsections (4) and (5) of that section, the following - 

    " (4) The regional returning officer shall ascertain from that party's regional list the name and address of the person whose name appears highest on that list ("the first choice") and shall take such steps as appear to him to be reasonable to contact the first choice to ask whether he will - 


(a) state in writing that he is willing and able to serve as a regional member for that region; and

(b) deliver a certificate signed by or on behalf of the nominating officer of the registered party which submitted that regional list stating that he may be returned as a regional member from that list.



    (4A) Where - 



(a) within such period as the regional returning officer considers reasonable - 


(i) he decides that the steps he has taken to contact the first choice have been unsuccessful; or

(ii) he has not received from that person the statement and certificate referred to in subsection (4) above; or



(b) that person has - 



(i) stated in writing that he is not willing to serve as a regional member for that region; or

(ii) failed to deliver the certificate referred to in subsection (4)(b) above,



the regional returning officer shall repeat the procedure required by subsection (4) above in respect of the person (if any) whose name and address appears next in that list ("the second choice") or, where sub-paragraph (a) or (b) of this subsection applies in respect of that person, in respect of the person (if any) whose name and address appear next highest after the second choice in that list and the regional returning officer shall continue to repeat the procedure until the regional returning officer has notified the Presiding Officer of the name of the person who is to fill the vacancy or the names in the list are exhausted.



    (5) Where a person whose name appears on that list provides the statement and certificate referred to in subsection (4) above, the regional returning officer shall notify to the Presiding Officer the name of that person.

    (5A) Where - 



(a) under subsection (4A) above, the regional returning officer has asked a second or other subsequent choice the questions referred to in subsection (4) above; and

(b) the person who was asked those questions on an earlier occasion then provides the statement and certificate referred to in that subsection,



that statement and certificate shall have no effect unless and until the circumstances described in sub-paragraph (a) or (b) of subsection (4A) apply in respect of the second or other subsequent choice.".

Dissolution of Parliament: minimum period
     89. The "minimum period" for the purpose of section 2(3) of the 1998 Act (ordinary general elections) is a period of 25 days, computed in accordance with rule 2 of the Scottish Parliamentary Election Rules.

Advertisements
     90. The Town and Country Planning (Control of Advertisements) (Scotland) Regulations 1984[11] shall have effect in relation to the display on any site in Scotland of an advertisement relating specifically to a Scottish parliamentary election as they have effect in relation to the display of an advertisement relating specifically to a parliamentary election.

Forms: variations
     91. The forms set out in the Appendix to this Order may be used with such variations as the circumstances may require.

Sending of applications, notices etc.
     92.  - (1) Any application, notice, claim or objection which is required by this Order to be made to a registration officer or a returning officer shall be made in writing and sent by post or delivered to his office or to the address specified by him for the purpose.

    (2) Where a registration officer or returning officer is required by this Order to notify any person, such notification shall be in writing and may be sent by post - 

(a) in the case of a person other than a service voter, to the address provided by that person for the purpose of such notification or of any record or, if there is no such address, to the last known place of abode of that person;

(b) in the case of a service voter, to any address provided by him for the purpose of such notification or of any record or to the address provided for the purpose by the appropriate government department (as defined by section 59(3) of the 1983 Act) or, as the case may be, the British Council.

Publication of documents
     93.  - (1) Any failure to publish a document in accordance with this Order shall not invalidate the document, but this provision shall not relieve a registration officer from any penalty for such a failure.

    (2) Where a document is made available for inspection, any person may make a copy (whether in handwriting or by other means) of the whole or any part of such a document.

Interference with notices etc.
     94. If any person without lawful authority destroys, mutilates, defaces or removes any notice published by a registration officer in connection with his registration duties or any copies of a document which have been made available for inspection in pursuance of those duties, he shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding level 3 on the standard scale.

Premises used for election purposes
     95. In relation to premises in Scotland, section 65(6) of the Local Government Finance Act 1988[12] (occupation for election meetings and polls) shall have effect as if - 

(a) the reference to public meetings in furtherance of a person's candidature at an election included a reference to public meetings promoting a particular result at a Scottish parliamentary election; and

(b) the reference to use by a returning officer for the purpose of taking the poll in an election included a reference to use by a constituency returning officer in taking a poll at a Scottish parliamentary election in accordance with Schedule 2.

Effect of demise of the Crown
     96. A proclamation dissolving the Parliament as mentioned in section 2(5) of the 1998 Act shall not be affected by the demise of the Crown.

Supplementary, incidental and consequential provisions
     97. The enactments mentioned in Schedule 8 are modified to the extent specified in that Schedule.


Donald C. Dewar
Secretary of State for Scotland

St Andrew's House, Edinburgh
10th March 1999

[11] S.I. 1984/467.back

[12] 1988 c.41.back