The total cost of the AV referendum is expected to reach £75m, the Electoral Commission committee revealed this morning.

Settled fee and expense payments to counting officers make up the largest part of the referendum cost.

So far, 376 of 451 counting officer claims have been settled, at a price of £50.1m.

Outstanding fee and expense payments to the officers total £8.2m.

The Electoral Commission's activities on the referendum cost the taxpayer £7.9m, while campaigning mailings by the different camps reached £8.5m.

The figures came to light in a written question from Conservative Simon Hart.

Fellow Conservative Gary Streeter, a member of the Speaker's Committee on the Electoral Commission, explained that the final cost of the referendum on the parliamentary voting system will be published in the autumn.

He explained: "The autumn report will also analyse the overall costs of the referendum, including the costs charged by counting officer and regional counting officers, and review in detail the current fees and charges framework."

Some might see this as a hint that the costs of counting and regional counting officer claims will be reviewed.

(I should add that this is considerably less than the £250m figure that was put out by the No camp during the campaign. But as former press officer for No to AV Dylan Sharpe highlighted, £250m was their estimated cost if AV had been introduced.)

UPDATE: Conservative MP Simon Hart got in touch to explain that the cost of the AV referendum should be considered while talking about a House of Lords referendum.

"There's been some talk on referendum of the House of Lords and I wanted to get a rough idea on the cost of a free-standing referendum," he said.

"It's fairly chunky figure for the turnout.

"It tells me that we need to be pretty circumspect about referendums, particularly on issues that may not engage the public. It's a high price for a political device."

Tags: Alternative Vote (AV) referendum, AV referendum, Electoral Commission (EC), Gary Streeter, Simon Hart, Speaker's committee on the elect