Commentary on Sections Part 3: Elections Section 27: Returning Officers for elections to the European Parliament
128.Section 27 amends section 6 of the European Parliamentary Elections Act 2002 to provide for the proper officer of the Greater London Authority to be eligible to be designated by the Secretary of State as a returning officer for European Parliamentary elections in a region in England and Wales and makes related provision.
129.Subsection (2) provides that the Greater London Returning Officer, who is the proper officer of the Greater London Authority and is responsible for running elections for the London Mayor and London Assembly, will be eligible to be designated as returning officer for European Parliamentary elections, in addition to acting returning officers for United Kingdom Parliamentary elections in England and Wales.
130.Subsection (3) substitutes a new definition of “local returning officer” for that previously contained in section 6(5A)(a) of the European Parliamentary Elections Act 2002. The effect of the new definition is that the local returning officers for European Parliamentary elections will be the persons who are returning officers for the local authority elections specified in the new subsection, rather than the persons who are returning officers for United Kingdom Parliamentary general elections.
131.Subsection (4) inserts in section 6 a new subsection (9) to provide that where the proper officer of the Greater London Authority is designated as returning officer for the London electoral region, the Greater London Authority must place the services of its employees at that person’s disposal for the purpose of assisting the proper officer in performing his or her functions as returning officer.