Guidance for Returning Officers administering a Scottish Parliament election

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Producing election notices

Translation and formats of notices

You must ensure that notices are translated or provided in another format if appropriate.1  

You may produce them:

  • in Braille 
  • in languages other than English 
  • using graphical representations
  • in audio format 
  • using any other means of making information accessible 

The ballot papers cannot be produced in any language other than English or any other format.

The enlarged copy of the ballot papers to be displayed in polling stations must have the instructions for voters printed at the top of the papers, and these words may be translated into languages other than English.2

Ensuring information on notices is accessible

You should ensure that any information about the polls, including the notices of election and notices of poll are:

  • easily accessible to all voters
  • available in an accessible format
  • available in time for voters to cast their vote

Information can be made available through the local council website.

The information provided on your website should be accessible to all voters. You could also speak to your council’s Equalities officer for advice or web team for advice on how to do this.

If you are providing information in PDF format, you should be aware that if certain steps are not followed when creating PDFs they may not be compatible with screen readers or other assistive technologies.

The UK Government has produced a guide to producing accessible PDFs you can refer to.

Diweddarwyd ddiwethaf: 18 Tachwedd 2025