The Regional Assemblies (Preparations) Act 2003 (c. 10) was an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom.
Provisions Its core provision was to allow the Deputy Prime Minister to make orders for referendums in each of the Regions of England on the question of whether they wish to have an elected regional assembly.
The regional assemblies would have had very limited powers.
Three such referendums were expected in 2004, for the regions of North East and North West England and Yorkshire and the Humber.
To win the support of the Liberal Democrats, the act included an amendment to allow voters in areas with two-tier local government to indicate which model of unitary local government they preferred, with both models being developed by the boundary committee of the Electoral Commission.
Parallel developments Simultaneously, the government announced plans to replace reorganise local government in the three regions into unitary authorities.
See also 2004 North East England devolution referendum Referendums in the United Kingdom
References
Further reading
Halsbury's Statutes