The Liberal Democrats have welcomed a debate in the House of Commons, which will take place tomorrow, on whether to release the Scottish parliamentary election ballot papers to the independent investigation being led by Ron Gould.

The review, which was initiated following the high number of rejected ballots at the Holyrood election, is considering the legislation around the election and the impact of the combined parliamentary and local government elections; the postal ballot; the design of the ballots; the count arrangements; the electronic counting system (including the issue of rejected and spoilt ballots); public information; roles, relationships and accountability and other relevant issues.

Commenting ahead of tomorrow’s debate, Liberal Democrat Shadow Scottish Secretary Alistair Carmichael said: “There is an urgent need to get to the bottom of what went wrong with the Scottish election.

“It is ludicrous to imagine that a proper investigation could take place without the investigators having the opportunity to view the ballot papers in question. These ballots should have been made available as soon as the scale of the problems became clear.

“It is to be hoped that the Scotland Office will be more proactive in establishing any future needs and wishes of the Gould Inquiry than they have been in relation to the ballot papers.”

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