SNP MSP for Glasgow and Member of the Local Government Committee Bob Doris today expressed his disappointment at the new Secretary of State for Scotland's refusal to reconsider handing powers over Scottish elections to the Scottish Parliament as recommended in the independent Gould report into last year’s election’s fiasco.

Mr Doris wrote to Jim Murphy last night and within hours received a response which not only refused to reconsider the position of his predecessors on this issue but also failed to take account of previous Labour party proposals that the Calman Commission should consider where responsibility should lie.

Speaking after the debate Mr Doris said: "One of the key failings of election legislation and planning in 2007 was that the buck stopped nowhere. The Scottish Government and Parliament are clear, we want to accept responsibility for elections in Scotland and for the buck to stop with Scotland.

"Jim Murphy’s almost immediate dismissal of the Scottish Parliament and its Committee’s recommendations and even of Parliament’s decision that the Calman Commission should consider the future control of elections is deeply disappointing.

"In his haste to reply he even failed to hear the results of today’s debate in which a majority of parties gave their support for control of elections to come to Scotland.

"I am sure parties across the Parliament will be disappointed that the new Scottish Secretary prefers to rely on the deeply partisan report of the Labour dominated Scottish Affairs Committee at Westminster than consider the co-operative and consensual approach taken in the Scottish Parliament and the independent recommendations of Rob Gould to ensure there is no repeat of the electoral chaos of 2007.

Note:

At the Scottish Parliamentary elections in May 2007 the number of rejected ballot papers was as follows: constituency ballot papers – 85,643; list ballot papers – 60,454. In 1999 the figures were 7,839 and 7,268 respectively. In Glasgow alone, the number of rejected papers for the list was 9000 – almost 2000 more than in the whole of Scotland in 1999.