Referendum Act 1975

Referendum Act 1975
	Act of Parliament
	Parliament of the United Kingdom
Long title	An Act to provide for the holding of a referendum on the United Kingdom's membership of the European Economic Community.
Citation	1975 c. 33
Introduced by	Edward Short, Lord President of the Council (Commons); Elwyn Jones, Baron Elwyn-Jones, Lord Chancellor (Lords)
Territorial extent	United Kingdom; (England and Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland)
Dates
Royal assent	8 May 1975
Commencement	8 May 1975
Repealed	2 May 1986
Other legislation
Repealed by	Statute Law (Repeals) Act 1986 (1986 c. 12)
Relates to	European Communities Act 1972; European Union Referendum Act 2015;
Status: Repealed

The Referendum Act 1975 (c. 33), also known simply as the Referendum Act, was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which made legal provision for the holding of a non-binding referendum on whether the United Kingdom should remain a member of the European Communities (EC)—generally known at the time in the UK, with reference to their main component, the European Economic Community (EEC) as stipulated in the Act, also known at the time as the "Common Market".[1] The Referendum Bill was introduced to the House of Commons by the Leader of the House of Commons and Lord President of the Council Edward Short on 26 March 1975; on its second reading on 10 April 1975, MPs voted 312–248 in favour of holding the referendum—which came the day after they voted to stay in the European Communities on the new terms set out in the renegotiation.

The Act gave effect to a manifesto commitment of the Labour Party at the general election of October 1974, and set out the arrangements and procedure for the United Kingdom's first ever national referendum, in which voting was to take place simultaneously in all parts of the country. The Act was given Royal Assent on 8 May 1975 and came into effect immediately on the same date.

In accordance with the Act, the European Communities membership referendum took place on Thursday 5 June 1975, and voters approved continued EC/EEC membership by 67% to 33% on a national turnout of 64%.[2]l

The Act became effectively spent following the declaration of the national referendum result; however, it was not officially repealed until eleven years later, by the Statute Law (Repeals) Act 1986.

The Act

The Act legislated for a non-binding referendum to be held in the United Kingdom on Thursday 5 June 1975 on the issue of continuing membership of the EC and the EEC (the Common Market), which was to be a single majority vote, to be overseen by an appointed "Chief counting officer" who would declare the final result for the United Kingdom. As there was no previous precedent for the holding of any such plebiscite across the United Kingdom the Act also set out its procedure and format.

The referendum

Campaigning

The Act also provided for the equal public funding of two campaigns, one for a Yes vote, the other for a No vote. While each campaign was to receive the same amount of public money which amounted to £125,000 each, other donations were also to be permitted with no upper spending limit for either side .[3]

Counting areas

The Act allowed for the appointment of a "National Counting Officer" (later "Chief Counting Officer") who would lead and oversee the referendum both centrally and nationally. Also within the legislation it oversaw the appointment of the "Returning Officers" who would oversee the counts within their local areas. The Act legislated for verification which would be held at local authority level (district councils) after the close of polls, but the counting of votes would be only permitted and declared at the level of administrative regions under the Local Government Act 1972 and the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 as follows:

County council areas of England
Isles of Scilly
Greater London
County council areas of Wales
Administrative regions of Scotland
Northern Ireland

This meant there would be a total of 68 counting areas across the United Kingdom (47 in England, eight in Wales, twelve in Scotland, and a single area for Northern Ireland). Verification took place locally in England and Wales after the polling stations closed, but the referendum count itself did not begin until the day following the poll, Friday 6 June, beginning at 09:00 BST.

Referendum question

The Act set out the following question which the British electorate would be asked:

The Government has announced the results of the renegotiation of the United Kingdom's terms of membership of the European Community. Do you think that the United Kingdom should stay in the European Community (the Common Market)?

permitting a YES / NO answer (to be marked with a (X)).

Original proposed question

When the bill was introduced it gave the question to appear on ballot papers:

Do you think that the United Kingdom should stay in the European Community?

permitting a YES / NO answer (to be marked with a (X)).

The question was revised after the Government agreed to amend it to include the term "the Common Market" in brackets at the end of the question.

Franchise

The right to vote in the referendum was given to those who were residents of the United Kingdom, who were citizens of the United Kingdom and Colonies (CUKCs) and other persons with most other forms of British nationality, or Commonwealth citizens, under the British Nationality Act 1948, in both cases, and also citizens of the Republic of Ireland resident in the United Kingdom, all of which as according to the provisions of the Representation of the People Act 1969. Members of the House of Lords were permitted to vote. Voting took place from 07:00 to 22:00 British Summer Time on Thursday 5 June. The minimum age for voters in the referendum was 18 years, a figure in line with general elections in the UK at that time.

Referendum result

All but two of the regional counting areas returned a majority of votes in favour of continued EC membership.

Yes

No

The national result was declared at around 23:00 BST on Friday 6 June 1975 by the Chief Counting Officer Sir Phillip Allen in London after all sixty eight of the regional counting areas had declared their results.

Choice		Votes	%
United Kingdom European Communities membership referendum, 1975 National result
	Yes	17,378,581	67.23%
	No	8,470,073	32.70%

Valid votes		25,848,654	99.78%
Invalid or blank votes		54,540	0.22%
Total votes		25,903,194	100.00%

Registered voters and turnout		40,086,677	64.67%

National referendum results (without spoiled ballots):
Yes: 17,378,581 (67.3%)	No: 8,470,073 (32.7%)
▲

Results by United Kingdom constituent countries

Constituent country	Electorate	Turnout (%)	Yes		No
Constituent country	Electorate	Turnout (%)	Votes	%	Votes	%
England	33,356,208	64.6%	14,918,009	68.7%	6,812,052	31.3%
Wales	2,011,136	66.7%	869,135	64.8%	472,071	35.2%
Scotland	3,688,799	61.7%	1,332,186	58.4%	948,039	41.6%
Northern Ireland	1,030,534	47.4%	259,251	52.1%	237,911	47.9%

Outcome

The result, with "yes" votes from all but two of the 68 regional counting areas, confirmed the commitment to continued membership of the EC and of the EEC ("the Common Market") on the renegotiated terms; and the government led by Harold Wilson took no further direct action. Until the 2016 EU Referendum this was the only national referendum to be held in the United Kingdom regarding its relationship with the then European Communities; by then, both the EC the EEC had transformed (retrospectively) into the European Union (EU), under the terms of the Treaty of the European Union (EU), known as the Maastricht Treaty (TEU) (1992, effective 1 November 1993).

Notes

Current Law Statutes Annotated 1975, vol. 1 (Sweet and Maxwell, 1975), pp. 1,051-1,058
Colin Turpin, Adam Tomkins, British Government and the Constitution: Text and Materials (2007), p. 535
Referendums in the United Kingdom (Her Majesty's Stationery Office, 2010), p. 140

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.

[1] Current Law Statutes Annotated 1975, vol. 1 (Sweet and Maxwell, 1975), pp. 1,051-1,058

[2] Colin Turpin, Adam Tomkins, British Government and the Constitution: Text and Materials (2007), p. 535

[3] Referendums in the United Kingdom (Her Majesty's Stationery Office, 2010), p. 140

Elections and referendums in the United Kingdom
General elections	1801 1802 1806 1807 1812 1818 1820 1826 1830 1831 1832 1835 1837 1841 1847 1852 1857 1859 1865 1868 1874 1880 1885 1886 1892 1895 1900 1906 1910 (Jan) 1910 (Dec) 1918 1922 1923 1924 1929 1931 1935 1945 1950 1951 1955 1959 1964 1966 1970 1974 (Feb) 1974 (Oct) 1979 1983 1987 1992 1997 2001 2005 2010 2015 2017 2019 Next
Local elections	1889 1890 1892 1894 1895 1896 1897 1898 1899 1900 1901 1902 1903 1904 1905 1906 1907 1908 1909 1910 1911 1912 1913 1914 1915 1919 1920 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1945 1946 1947 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2021
European elections	1979 1984 1989 1994 1999 2004 2009 2014 2019
Referendums	1975 2011 2016