Combined Guidance for Returning Officers at Local Government and Police and Crime Commissioner Elections in England

In conjunction with your police SPOC, you should decide how you will ensure that ballot boxes and other materials are transported securely to the verification and count. 

As part of this, you will need to assess if you have any areas of high risk which may, for example, require a police escort, security van or additional personnel to transfer the ballot boxes from the polling station to the verification venue/collection point following the close of poll.  

Security in transit

You should ensure that Presiding Officers are clear about the rules and processes following the close of poll, including in relation to sealing the ballot boxes. Guidance on this is contained in the Commission’s polling station handbook. You should make clear to Presiding Officers that they should never leave the ballot boxes or other materials unattended and that, if they themselves are delivering the ballot boxes and materials to a collection point or the verification venue, that they should take steps to ensure their security throughout the journey, for example by locking their car doors and following any specific police advice.

If the venue for counting the votes is different from the verification venue you must seal the relevant ballot papers into ballot boxes or another suitable container, and allow agents to attach their seals. You must comply with any requirements in the election rules such as endorsing a description of the area to which the ballot papers relate on the ballot boxes and ensuring that all the required materials and paperwork are delivered to the count venue along with the ballot papers.

At the count venue, you should have robust arrangements to check in all the materials and paperwork delivered to ensure that nothing is missing.

Security at verification venue

You should make arrangements for how the ballot papers and other materials will be kept secure once they arrive at the verification and count venue(s), for example, by ensuring they are never left unattended.

These plans should also include the security of those materials that you must keep sealed (such as the corresponding numbers list), either by staff watching the materials or by securing them in a locked room.

Police and Crime Commissioner election

Where the PCC count is to take place at a different venue to the verification, you must place all the verified ballot papers into secure packets, such as ballot boxes, for transportation to the count venue.1 You must mark these packets with the name of your voting area and the name of the police area.2

You may need to liaise with the PARO regarding specific arrangements for transporting verified ballot papers to the count venue. 

You must also produce a record of the content of each of the packets of verified ballot papers that you are transporting to the PCC count venue.3 You must deliver this record, the ballot paper accounts and the final statement as to the result of the verification to the PCC count venue along with the packets of verified ballot papers.4

You should agree with the PARO the arrangements, including the names of the personnel involved, for the delivery of the packets for the PCC election. Once the packets of verified ballot papers have arrived at the count venue the PARO may require you to verify the contents of each packet before the counting of these votes is commenced.