Greater London Authority (Referendum) Act 1998

Greater London Authority (Referendum) Act 1998
Act of Parliament
	Parliament of the United Kingdom
Long title	An Act to make provision for the holding of a referendum on the establishment of a Greater London Authority and for expenditure in preparation for such an Authority; and to confer additional functions on the Local Government Commission for England in connection with the establishment of such an Authority.
Citation	1998 c. 3
Introduced by	John Prescott, Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
Territorial extent	England
Dates
Royal assent	23 February 1998
Status: Spent
Text of statute as originally enacted

The Greater London Authority (Referendum) Act 1998 (c. 3) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which made legal provision for the holding of a non-binding referendum in Greater London on whether there should be a democratically elected Assembly for London and a separately elected Mayor for London.^[1]^[2]

The Act

The Act legislated for the holding of a non-binding referendum to be held on 7 May 1998 in Greater London on whether there should be a democratically elected London Assembly and a separately elected Mayor for London and legislates for the appointment a Chief Counting Officer to oversee the referendum.

The referendum

The act legislated for a non binding referendum to be held in Greater London on 7 May 1998 on the issue of a Greater London Authority and enables the Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom to appoint a Chief Counting Officer to oversee the referendum.

Referendum question

The question that appeared on ballot papers in the referendum before the electorate under the act was:

Are you in favour of the Government's proposals for a Greater London Authority, made up of an elected mayor and a separately elected assembly?

permitting a simple YES / NO answer.

Counting areas

The 33 London Boroughs would be used as the counting areas for the referendum.

Result

Choice		Votes	%
Greater London Authority referendum, 1998 Result
	Yes	1,230,739	72.01%
	No	478,413	27.99%

Valid votes		1,709,172	98.49%
Invalid or blank votes		26,178	1.51%
Total votes		1,735,350	100.00%

Registered voters and turnout		5,016,064	34.60%

Outcome

Following the successful outcome of the vote the Greater London Authority Act 1999 was passed by the UK Parliament and the Authority came into being following elections in 2000.