Guidance for Returning Officers administering a Scottish Parliament election

You are responsible as CRO for all aspects of the constituency nominations process. If you are also RRO you are also responsible for all aspects of the regional nominations process.
 
Your project plan should include details on how you will engage with political parties, candidates and agents and how you manage the nomination process(es) that you are responsible for.

You should determine what information on local process will be shared with parties, individual candidates and agents and decide how this information should be disseminated. The information should be provided in good time to enable candidates and agents to act on it.

Briefings

You should ensure that that all parties, individual candidates and agents are offered a briefing session before or at the start of the nomination period. You should also hold an additional briefing session to those standing validly nominated and their agents after the close of nominations.

As a minimum, your briefing for the constituency contest and if you are also the RRO, the regional contest, should cover:

• the nomination process 
• the election process
• election spending
• accessing the electoral register
• equipment provided to polling station that makes voting easier for disabled people 
• Code of Conduct for campaigners at Scottish Parliament elections

If you are the RRO, you will also need to decide how information about local arrangements will be provided to parties, individual candidates and their election agents.

You should liaise with the CROs in your region for information about local arrangements, including their contact details and information on the dates, times and venues for the key election processes, such as postal vote issue and openings, polling, and the verification, count and the calculation of results.

The briefings should allow for the fact that there may be people who have little or no knowledge of election rules and procedures or who have not involved themselves in elections for some time.

All briefing sessions should highlight the importance of following the election rules. You should also provide information on the standards of behaviour you expect from supporters in the areas of the polling place on polling day.

We have produced template presentations for candidates and agents at the constituency contest and for parties, candidates and agents at the regional contest which you may want to use as a basis for briefing parties, candidates and election agents in your area.

You can find the briefings for Candidates and Agents at Constituency and Regional Scottish Parliament elections in the planning section of our resources page.

Providing written information 

You should ensure that parties, individual candidates and election agents are also issued with written guidance on the election process and that the information is provided in good time to enable them to act on it.

The purpose of providing written guidance is so that parties, individual candidates and election agents have access to authoritative and comprehensive guidance for reference at any time to ensure that they have all the information they need to take part in an election.

Where appropriate, you can provide a link to the relevant information they need online, and it will be for you to ensure that this can be easily accessed and to do whatever is necessary to facilitate this.

Accessibility

You should ensure that parties, individual candidates and election agents can easily access all the information they need in order to be able to participate in the election.

You should bear in mind potential specific access needs and so may need any information or guidance produced in a large-print or other format, such as Braille or audio, or in a language other than English.

You should also consider that candidates and election agents may have special requirements to support their attendance at briefings and you should make briefings available online or via video conference wherever possible.

You can record your briefing and make this available online for parties, individual candidates and election agents to watch on demand at their convenience, with details of how they can ask any follow up questions afterwards included.

However, you will also need to consider how you will offer briefings to those who are unable to, or uncomfortable with, accessing such information online, which may require you to provide some in-person briefings. You should inform parties, individual candidates and election agents of your proposed approach early to assist with your planning and preparation. Those interested in receiving a briefing should be asked to register in advance so that you can track numbers as well as accessibility requirements, which will enable you to tailor your approach and put the appropriate arrangements in place.