Section 10 of the Defamation Act 1952 provides that a defamatory statement published by a candidate at a local government or Parliamentary election is not entitled to privilege for the purposes of the law of defamation on the grounds that it is material to an election issue.  This amendment applies the same provision to elections to the Scottish Parliament and complements section 41 (Defamatory statements) and the amendments to the Defamation Act 1996 at paragraph 22 of this Schedule.  Paragraph 11 makes the same modification for the purposes of the law of defamation in Northern Ireland.
General