European Union Referendum Act 2015
The European Union Referendum Act 2015 (c. 36) was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that made legal provision for a consultative referendum to be held in the United Kingdom and Gibraltar, on whether it should remain a member state of the European Union or leave the bloc altogether.[1][2] The Bill was introduced to the House of Commons by Philip Hammond, Foreign Secretary on 28 May 2015.[3] Two weeks later, the second reading of the Bill was supported by MPs from all parties except the SNP;[4] the Bill subsequently passed on its third reading in the Commons on 7 September 2015.[5] It was approved by the House of Lords on 14 December 2015,[6] and given Royal Assent on 17 December 2015. The Act came partly into force on the same day and came into full legal force on 1 February 2016.
This article is about the 2015 Act of Parliament which enabled the 2016 European Union membership referendum. For the associated Act of the Gibraltar Parliament, see European Union (Referendum) Act 2016 (Gibraltar). For the unsuccessful 2013–14 private member's bill, see European Union (Referendum) Bill 2013–14.Long title
An Act to make provision for the holding of a referendum in the United Kingdom and Gibraltar on whether the United Kingdom should remain a member of the European Union.
2015 c. 36
United Kingdom
Gibraltar
(implemented in Gibraltar by the European Union (Referendum) Act 2016 (Gibraltar))
17 December 2015
- 17 December 2015
(partly in force) - 1 February 2016
(wholly in force)
- European Communities Act 1972
- Referendum Act 1975
- Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000
- European Parliamentary Elections Act 2002
- European Union Act 2011
- European Union (Notification of Withdrawal) Act 2017
- European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018
- European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2019
- European Union (Withdrawal) (No. 2) Act 2019
- European Union (Withdrawal Agreement) Act 2020
The Act gave effect to a manifesto commitment of the Conservative Party at the general election of May 2015, and was one of the most significant pieces of legislation that was passed by the 2015–17 Parliament. It required the Secretary of State to appoint the day on which the referendum should be held, although it could not be any later than 31 December 2017 and, on 20 February 2016, David Cameron announced that the referendum would take place on 23 June 2016. In the referendum, the electorate voted by 51.9 per cent to 48.1 per cent in favour of leaving the EU, on a 72 per cent national turnout.
The Act became spent upon the conclusion of the referendum.
The Act[edit]
The Act legislated for a referendum to be held in the United Kingdom and Gibraltar on whether to remain a member of the EU, to be conducted by the Electoral Commission and overseen by an appointed "Chief Counting Officer" (CCO) and a "deputy chief counting officer" (DCCO) who declared the final result for the United Kingdom. By regulation the Act ordered the Secretary of State (in this case the Prime Minister) to appoint a date for the holding of the referendum, as long as the date was no later than 31 December 2017, and not on 5 May 2016 or 4 May 2017. The Electoral Commission is the public body under the terms of the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000 that was given the task to raise public awareness ahead of polling day, and to oversee the conduct of the referendum.
The referendum[edit]
Limitation[edit]
This Act required a referendum to be held on the question of the UK's continued membership of the European Union before the end of 2017. The Bill did not contain any requirement for the UK Government to implement the results of the referendum, nor set a time limit by which a vote to leave the EU should be implemented. Instead, this was a type of referendum known as a pre-legislative or consultative referendum, which enables the electorate to voice an opinion which then influences the Government in its policy decisions. The referendums held in Scotland (1997), Wales (1997) and Northern Ireland (1998) are examples of this type, where opinion was tested before legislation was introduced. The UK does not have constitutional provisions which would require the results of a referendum to be implemented, unlike, for example, Ireland, where the circumstances in which a binding referendum should be held are set out in its constitution.
In contrast, the legislation which provided for the referendum held on AV in May 2011 would have implemented the new system of voting without further legislation, provided that the boundary changes also provided for in the Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Act 2011 were also implemented. In the event, there was a substantial majority against any change. The 1975 referendum was held after the re-negotiated terms of the UK's EC membership had been agreed by all EC Member States and the terms set out in a command paper which later became known as the Referendum Act 1975 and was passed by both Houses.[12]
The Bill became law when it received Royal Assent on 17 December 2015.
In accordance with the Act and the public duty of the Electoral Commission, a guide was posted to every household in the UK and Gibraltar in the week beginning of 16 May 2016 by HM Government. The leaflet was titled: "Why the Government believes that voting to remain in the European Union is the best decision for the UK". This leaflet stated: "This is your decision. The government will implement what you decide".[13]
Under the provisions of the Act, the designation of a "voting area" (also known by some as "Counting areas") on the day of the referendum was to be overseen by "Counting officers" (CO) who were to declare the results of their local areas within the United Kingdom and Gibraltar as follows:
There were a total of 382 voting areas. 326 in England, 32 in Scotland, 22 in Wales and single areas for Northern Ireland and Gibraltar. The local counts in the voting areas began from 2200 BST (Western European Summer Time) on Thursday 23 June 2016 after all polling stations had closed. Recounts within "voting areas" were permitted when circumstances require under the instructions of the "Counting officers (CO)." It was the first time that a United Kingdom referendum was counted overnight as both the previous 1975 EC Referendum and the 2011 AV Referendum were counted during the course of the following day after polling stations closed.
The Act also provided provision for the results from the "voting areas" to fed into twelve "regional counts" to be overseen by "Regional counting officers" (RCO) who were appointed in the following areas and declared the results for their areas as used under the European Parliamentary Elections Act 2002:
For the purposes of the referendum, the local result from Gibraltar was fed into the South West England regional count. The regions each declared their results once all local voting areas had declared their local results early on Friday 24 June 2016. There was no provision under the Act for any national or regional recounts by the Chief Counting Officer and Regional Counting Officers.
Franchise[edit]
The right to vote in the referendum applied to UK and Gibraltar residents who are British, Irish and Commonwealth citizens, in accordance with the provisions of the Representation of the People Act 1983 and the Representation of the People Act 2000. Members of the House of Lords were able to vote in the referendum. Citizens of other EU countries resident in the UK were not allowed to vote unless they were citizens of Ireland, Malta or Cyprus. The same Acts only permitted UK nationals who had lived overseas for less than 15 years to vote, thus excluding a large number of British Europeans who were directly concerned, from voting either. [18] This meant that a total of around 46.5 million people would be eligible to cast a vote in the referendum. Voting on the day of the referendum was from 07:00 to 22:00 BST (Western European Summer Time) (07:00 to 22:00 Central European Summer Time in Gibraltar) in some 41,000 polling stations staffed by over 100,000 officials. Each polling station was specified to have no more than 2,500 registered voters.[19] Also under the provisions of the Representation of the People Act 2000 postal ballots were also permitted in the referendum and were sent out to eligible voters some three weeks ahead of the vote (2 June 2016). Residents of the Isle of Man, and the other Crown Dependencies Jersey and Guernsey, were not eligible to vote in the referendum, as those territories are not part of the UK [nor of the EU].[20]
The minimum age for voters in the referendum was 18 years, in accordance with Representation Acts (above). A House of Lords amendment proposing to lower the minimum age to 16 years[21] was rejected.[6]
Calling of referendum[edit]
On the morning of Saturday 20 February 2016 Prime Minister David Cameron held a special cabinet meeting in 10 Downing Street with his fellow Ministers (the first such meeting to be held on a Saturday since 3 April 1982 at the start of the Falklands War). Following the meeting, he announced outside the door of No 10 that the referendum would be held on Thursday 23 June 2016. On Monday 22 February 2016, Parliament enacted secondary legislation to authorise the holding of the referendum on that date.[22]
Legislative consequences[edit]
The Act made no provision for the result to be legally binding on the government or on any future government; legally it was merely advisory.[26] The result of the referendum required a single majority vote of the United Kingdom and Gibraltar with no super majorities, no double majorities of the constituent countries, nor any minimum turnout threshold required for the vote to pass. The Act did not specify any specific consequences that would follow the result of the referendum. In the event of a "Leave" vote, it was expected that the government would decide whether, when, and under what circumstances, the UK would invoke Article 50 of the Treaty on European Union to begin a two-year process of negotiations for Britain to leave the EU. Since the Act was also silent on the question of executive prerogative, the question of whether the government or Parliament was entitled to invoke Article 50 was the subject of court proceedings (Miller's case). James Eadie QC, acting for the government, submitted in his address to the court that, because the Act is silent, it would imply that Parliament chose not to limit prerogative powers in this matter.[27]
On 3 November 2016, the High Court in London ruled that it is the responsibility of Parliament (and not of the Government unilaterally) to decide whether, when, and how the UK should set aside legislation (in this case, the European Communities Act 1972 that makes the UK a member of the EU). The court held that the referendum was "advisory for the lawmakers in Parliament", enabling the electorate to influence Parliament in its policy decisions. In interpreting the intent of the Act, the court considered the precedents of previous UK referendums. As a consequence, the European Union (Notification of Withdrawal) Bill 2017 was introduced into Parliament to gain Parliament's consent for the invocation of Article 50. European Union law remains enforceable in the United Kingdom until or unless the European Communities Act 1972 is repealed.[19] In October 2016, Theresa May promised a "Great Repeal Bill", which would repeal the European Communities Act and restate in UK law all enactments previously in force under EU law. This bill was expected to be introduced in the May 2017 parliamentary session and enacted before or during the Article 50 negotiations. It would not come into force until the date of exit. It would smooth the transition by ensuring that all laws remain in force until specifically repealed.[28] This ultimately became the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018.