MSPs on Holyrood’s Local Government and Communities Committee have written to ministers to raise concerns over the current payment system for returning officers, describing it as “not open or transparent”.
It follows on from calls earlier this year to have the extra payments given to council chief executives – on top of their salaries – to act as a returning officer and oversee elections scrapped.
The committee followed this up in June, submitting Freedom of Information requests to each of Scotland’s 32 local authorities, asking for a breakdown of payments made to returning officers for the independence referendum, the EU referendum, the last two general elections, and the recent Scottish parliament and local government elections.
The responses showed that each council had their own idiosyncratic approach to how much should be paid. Some authorities even refused to tell the committee.
The committee’s convener, Bob Doris MSP, said: “Our committee was very clear that the current payment system for returning officers should end and that substantial reform is urgently needed.
“The FOI responses we have published today further demonstrates that the current system is not open or transparent. We believe this could undermine the public’s confidence in how elections are run.
“That’s why we have written to the Secretary of State for Scotland and the Scottish Government once again to reiterate our calls for greater transparency”.
Returning officers have argued that the importance of the job merits extra pay.
Chief executives are the usual candidates due to their politically-neutral role.
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