The following guidance has been produced to support Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) in planning for and delivering the annual canvass.
It has been developed in close consultation with colleagues across the electoral community including the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, the Association of Electoral Administrators (AEA), the Scottish Assessors Association (SAA), the Elections, Registration and Referendums Working Group (ERRWG) and the Welsh Electoral Practitioners Working Group (WEPWG).
The guidance is directed towards the ERO and the duties they carry out. As these duties may, in practice, be carried out by deputies and/or appointed staff, we use the term ‘you’ throughout this guidance to mean the ERO and whoever is carrying out the ERO’s functions on their behalf.
Throughout this guidance we use ‘must’ to refer to a specific legal requirement and ‘may / should’ for recommended practice.
The guidance has been produced based on, and should be read in accordance with, the requirements set out in section 9D of the Representation of the People Act 1983 and in the Representation of the People (Scotland) Regulations 2001.
The endnotes in this guidance refer to the relevant provisions that have been amended by The Representation of the People (Annual Canvass) (Amendment) Regulations 2019, The Representation of the People (Annual Canvass) Amendment (Scotland) Order 2020 and The Representation of the People (Annual Canvass) (Miscellaneous Amendments) (Scotland) Regulations 2020.
To help you use this guidance we have produced a Q&A document that should answer any initial queries you may have.