Bosses today poured scorn on the prospect of a Yorkshire Parliament based on apathy.

The Confederation of British Industry (CBI) called for measures to prevent an assembly being set up in the Yorkshire region if there was very little public demand.

It wants the Government to add tough new safeguards to its plans for elected regional assemblies.

In its submission to the Regional Assemblies (Preparations) Bill consultation, which today reached committee stage in the House of Lords, the CBI argued that a successful referendum should not only need a simple majority of yes votes, but those voting for it must be a "significant proportion" of a region's population. That meant that it should require either a 50 per cent turn-out or 30 per cent of the eligible electorate to have voted in favour.

Updated: 09:56 Thursday, March 13, 2003