It is important that once you have put in place your plans for monitoring and maintaining the integrity of the election in your area you offer clear advice to candidates, agents and electors on how to make allegations to ensure an effective and consistent approach is taken to managing them.
You should ensure that all candidates and their agents understand:
how to raise specific concerns about electoral fraud relating to the election
what type and level of evidence will be necessary to enable allegations to be investigated by the police
how allegations will be dealt with
what information and feedback they should be able to expect about the progress of any investigations
Police Scotland will investigate any allegations of electoral fraud until, following consultation with the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS), they forward the case file to the COPFS for consideration with a view to prosecution, or alternatively they are satisfied that no further action is necessary or appropriate. The police should keep you and, where appropriate, the ERO informed of the progress of the case.
Police Scotland, in consultation with the Electoral Commission and the EMB, has produced a guidance document for police officers in Scotland on preventing and detecting electoral fraud.
You can find the 2017 Guidance on preventing and detecting electoral fraud in Scotland in the planning section of our resources page.