EA Bulletin: 389 Scotland

We wanted to update you on two areas of work we are undertaking to help support you and others across the electoral community to deliver elections that everyone can have confidence in.

Principles for a code of conduct for campaigners

You will all be familiar with the unacceptable levels of abuse and intimidation that are faced by some election candidates, campaigners and electoral administrators and their staff. Ahead of the May 2026 elections, we are supporting electoral administrators to ensure the safe and effective delivery of the election, including through providing guidance on their powers at polling stations and the count, so everyone can participate freely and without intimidation. In addition, we have developed six principles to help make sure everyone involved in the democratic process is supported and protected from abuse and intimidation. They set a minimum standard of behaviour for all candidates and campaigners.

The principles are advisory and set out good practice. They are not formal rules and we won’t be adjudicating on whether individual cases of behaviour do or don’t follow the principles.

The principles are the start, not an end point, to a collaborative approach to campaigning across political parties. After the May elections, we will assess and evaluate how the principles worked in practice. Using these findings, we will develop a detailed approach to expanding the principles into an updated full code of conduct and we will keep you up to date through the EA bulletin as usual.

Deepfake Detection Pilot

We have closely monitored how deepfakes are used in campaigning in the UK and overseas and are aware of the risks they pose to election security and voter confidence.  

To strengthen our response to emerging threats at elections, we are working with the Home Office to launch a pilot to detect political deepfakes and analyse their impact on parties, campaigners and public sentiment at the May 2026 elections.  

It will run until polling day and it will detect deepfakes on social media platforms during the elections. This includes specifically material which could misinform voters about the electoral process, such as inaccurate information about polling day.

For example, if a video gains traction online of a candidate seemingly withdrawing from an election, we may be able to use technology to accurately determine whether the video is a deepfake and measure its impact on public sentiment. We will then be able to track overall trends, and if required, take appropriate action in line with our regulatory remit or liaise with others who can act such as Ofcom or the police. We will also liaise directly with Returning Officers (ROs) as appropriate where material specifically relates to elections in their local area.

Across all this work, it will be crucial that voters understand how technology will be used to influence their votes at future elections. After the election we will carry out an evaluation and will be able to update colleagues across the electoral community, including administrators, on our findings.