The following guidance has been produced to support Police Area Returning Officers (PAROs) in planning for and delivering a Police and Crime Commissioner election in England and Wales.

In some police areas the candidate elected to the role of PCC also holds the fire and rescue authority function [PFCC].1 Throughout this guidance, we will highlight where this added function has an impact on the forms to be used or your management of the process.  

The guidance has been developed in close consultation with the UK Electoral Coordination and Advisory Board (ECAB), the Elections, Registration and Referendums Working Group (ERRWG) and the Association of Electoral Administrators (AEA). It reflects the PARO’s legal obligations and what we, the ECAB, the ERRWG and the AEA believe that PAROs should expect of their staff in preparing for and delivering Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) elections. 

Performance Standards

In addition to our role in providing advice and guidance, we set standards and monitor the performance of ROs through our performance standards framework.

Our guidance to support the delivery of your functions includes what we expect PAROs will need to have in place and what we would expect to see for the key outcomes of the standards to be delivered.

The performance standards framework and guidance for local ROs should be used to inform your work to monitor and support local ROs in your area.

For more information on the framework see our performance standards guidance for ROs.

How to use this guidance

This guidance is directed toward the PARO 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 PARO and whoever is carrying out the PARO’s functions on their behalf.

Throughout this guidance we use ‘must’ to refer to a specific legal requirement and ‘may / should’ for recommended practice.  

You should liaise with stakeholders, particularly local Returning Officers (ROs) across the police area, to inform your planning to ensure consistency across the police area. 

This guidance covers your roles and responsibilities as PARO, the particular context and circumstances of PCC elections, planning for the election, and highlights aspects of the election process where early preparations can be undertaken.

It also covers specific parts of the elections process that you are responsible for delivering, including:  

• the nominations process
• candidates’ election addresses
• administering the poll
• verifying and counting the votes, result collation and the declaration of the result
• after the declaration of the result

Where the guidance is different for combined polls the information will be contained in an expanding section. This means that next to the relevant heading there is an icon with a + which will expand to show the relevant guidance.

To help you use this guidance we have produced a Q&A document that should answer any initial queries you may have. 

This guidance does not cover your role and responsibilities as Local Returning Officer (LRO) or as any other Returning Officer. The Commission has produced separate guidance for LROs. 

This guidance is supplemented by resources which can be accessed through links contained in the guidance. 

Should you have any questions about our guidance or any other matter relating to the administration of elections, our local Commission teams are available to provide on-going support. We also provide an out-of-hours advice service to deal with urgent electoral administration queries in the run up to and immediately following any scheduled elections. Further information on the provision of our out-of-hours service will be provided through our Bulletin for electoral administrators.

There are 39 police areas in England1 and Wales. The Secretary of State is responsible for designating a Police Area Returning Officer (PARO) for each police area, who must be an Acting Returning Officer for a UK Parliamentary constituency falling wholly or partly within the police area.2

You are responsible for the overall conduct of the PCC election, and for liaising with and co-ordinating the work of Local Returning Officers (LROs) in the police area. The job description produced by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) for the purposes of PARO recruitment provides an overview of the role and responsibilities of PAROs.

Insurance and indemnity

You should ensure that you have appropriate insurance cover. You should be prepared to demonstrate robust planning and decision-making processes in the event of any challenge to the election and a claim against this cover. 

The team at your council dealing with insurance may be able to help determine what existing cover is in place and available, and to provide advice as to whether it should be extended.

MHCLG will provide information relating to their policy around indemnifying PAROS and LROs in the run up to a scheduled PCC election. 
 

As PARO you are responsible for the overall conduct of the election of a Police and Crime Commissioner or Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner for the police area for which you have been appointed.

In addition to your legal duties, you are also responsible for providing leadership and co-ordinating the work of Local Returning Officers (LRO), to ensure that the election is well-run and that voters and those standing for election receive a consistently high-quality service across the whole of the police area.

As PARO you are personally responsible for the following specific aspects of the PCC election:

• giving notice of the election1  
• the nomination procedures2  
• encouraging participation3  
• ensuring that the requirements as to the content of candidate election addresses, and the procedures for submitting those addresses, are complied with4  
• the collation of local totals and calculation of the result5  
• the declaration of the result6  

Issuing directions

You may also take on responsibility for the following LRO duties by giving direction to the relevant LRO(s): 

• printing the PCC ballot papers
• verification (although where polls have been combined, the responsibility for the verification falls on the Returning Officer for the other poll)
• counting the PCC votes7  

You should take any decision to issue such a direction at an early stage in the process, following consultation with the relevant LROs, in order to provide clarity for all involved and to enable these activities to be planned for and taken forward as appropriate. You should put in place a communications plan for communicating any directions and guidance. 

As part of your considerations you should take into account the number of voting areas in your police area and the scale of the activities that you will need to undertake. If you do take on any of these LRO duties, you will need to ensure that you are adequately resourced to be able to deliver them effectively.

You must do whatever is necessary for conducting the PCC election in your police area. You can give general or specific directions to LROs for any voting area, wholly or partly comprised, within the police area about the discharge of their functions in relation to PCC elections, including directions requiring LROs to take specified steps in preparation for a PCC election and directions requiring them to provide you with information that they have or are entitled to have. LROs are required to comply with any direction you have given to them. You can give directions that apply to all LROs, or only to one or some.8

Combined polls

Where the poll at the PCC election is combined with the poll at another election the LRO will not have responsibility for the combined functions, which will limit your power to give directions.9 You are only able to exercise your power of direction over LROs in respect of those aspects of the PCC election for which they, as LROs, are responsible (as listed in the bullet points above). Your power of direction does not apply to those combined functions that are taken on by other Returning Officers.

There is, however, one exception and that is in relation to the verification of ballot paper accounts. As PARO you are able to direct the time by which verification procedures must begin and whichever Returning Officer is responsible for discharging this function must comply with your direction.10  

Further guidance on the issuing of directions can be found in our planning section for PAROs.

When running a PCC election there is the potential for it to be combined with other polls taking place across parts of England and Wales. As a result there could be a number of Returning Officers with responsibility for delivering particular elements of the elections.

Local government elections (including County Council, parish and local and combined [county] authority Mayoral elections), and possibly council tax referendums and neighbourhood planning referendums could be taking place across parts of the country and, as such, there may be some or all voting areas within the police area where the poll for the PCC election will be combined with another poll or polls. 

Local government Returning Officer 

Local elections are run by the local government Returning Officer, who is normally a senior officer of the local authority and independent of the authority in respect of their electoral functions.1

Where polls are combined, in addition to being responsible for all aspects of the administration of the local government elections, the local government RO will also take on responsibility for the combined elements of the poll, including:2

• the provision of polling stations
• the appointment and training of Presiding Officers and Poll Clerks
• conducting the poll
• the notice of situation of polling stations
• the equipment of polling stations
• the notification of the secrecy requirements at polling stations
• signing certificates of employment for polling station staff allowing them to vote at the polling station they are working at, as opposed to the one allocated to them
• authorisation to order the removal of persons from polling stations
• verification of all ballot papers 
• where it has been decided to combine the issue of postal votes:                              
  • the corresponding number list
  • the issue of postal votes including creating a copy of the postal voters list and proxy postal voters list and marking it on issue     
  • the opening of postal votes including the marking the returned postal vote statements on the lists and the verification of the personal identifiers on the returned postal voting statements

At a mayoral, neighbourhood planning or Council Tax referendum, the referendum is the responsibility of the Counting Officer (CO) who is the RO for principal area elections.3

Where only a referendum and the PCC election are combined, you should liaise early on in the planning process with the relevant LRO and CO to discuss responsibility for the combined functions. 

County Returning Officers (county ROs)

In areas where county council elections are taking place, the county Returning Officer is an officer of the county council4 and is responsible for all aspects of the administration of the poll in their area. However, in practice county ROs designate a deputy at each district council within the county area to carry out their functions. The appointed deputy RO (DRO) will normally be the Returning Officer for local government elections for that particular district.  

Where polls are combined, the local government RO will take on responsibility for the combined elements of the poll described in the bulleted list above. 

The county RO has no power of direction, and to effectively deliver the poll across the county positive working relationships need to be cultivated between the county RO and DROs. 

Local Returning Officers (LROs)

The Local Returning Officer (LRO) for the PCC election is the person who acts as Returning Officer for local elections in that area.5 They are responsible for running the PCC election at a local level. 

Where the PCC election is not combined with any other poll, the LRO will be personally responsible for the conduct of the poll, the issue and receipt of postal ballot papers and the verification and counting of the votes in their voting area (unless the PARO has given notice that they will take on responsibility for the verification and counting of the PCC votes in the voting area).

Where the PCC election is combined with the poll at another election, the LRO will be the same person as the local government RO and will be personally responsible for the following in their voting area:6

• counting the PCC votes for their voting area (unless the PARO has given notice that they will take on responsibility for this)
• transmitting the voting area result to the PARO
• printing the PCC election ballot papers (unless the PARO has given notice that they will take on responsibility for this)
• managing the postal vote process at the PCC election (but only if the decision has been taken to not combine the issue of postal votes at the local and PCC elections)

Returning Officers must also consider the accessibility for voters at polling stations. Our guidance on assistance with voting for disabled people provides further information. 

Electoral Registration Officer

The Electoral Registration Officer is responsible for maintaining the register of electors and absent voters’ lists for their local authority area. In England and Wales, the Electoral Registration Officer is normally a senior officer in the local authority and may also be the Returning Officer.
 

You are also subject to breach of official duty provisions. This means that if you or your appointed deputies are, without reasonable cause, guilty of any act or omission in breach of official duty you (and/or they) are liable on summary conviction to an unlimited fine.1

You have the power to take such steps as you think appropriate to remedy acts or omissions that arise in connection with  your electoral functions that are not in accordance with the rules or any other requirements applicable to the election.2

This power allows you to correct procedural errors that you, as PARO, or a Local Returning Officer (LRO), an Electoral Registration Officer, a Presiding Officer or a person providing goods or services to you (or any deputies of any of these) make. This power does not extend to correcting errors made by candidates or agents. For more information on mistakes made during the nomination process by candidates and agents, please see our guidance on the correction of minor errors.  

LROs have the same power to correct procedural errors and you should ensure that they consult you before exercising this power. 

A procedural error refers to an error someone has made during the process of planning or delivering the election which may affect the election process or result. For example, incorrect information on poll cards or ballot papers, or postal or polling station ballot papers being issued in error or not issued when they should have been. The above examples are not exhaustive and you should contact your local Commission team for support and advice if you think you may have made a mistake that could be corrected using this power.  You should also seek your own independent legal advice.

Where you or an LRO use the power to correct procedural errors for the PCC election, you should ensure that the error and corrective action taken is explained to those affected including, where applicable, voters and candidates and agents. You should ensure that you keep a record of: 

• any errors identified including what the error was and how it occurred
• the impact of the error
• any advice you or the LRO received (including legal advice)
• what measures were taken to correct the error, and how these were communicated

Where you remedy a procedural  act or omission in full using this power, you will not be guilty of an offence of breach of official duty.3 You should remember that the power to correct procedural errors does not enable the votes to be recounted once the result has been declared.

In addition to your legal duties, you are also responsible for providing leadership and co-ordinating the work of local Returning Officers (LROs) to ensure that the election is well-run and that voters and those standing for election receive a consistently high-quality service across the whole of the police area.

You should ensure that you have a clear understanding of your statutory functions and a working knowledge of the relevant legislation. 

In undertaking the management responsibilities attached to your role you should:

• provide leadership to LROs within your police area, which should be supplemented with advice, guidance and training as required, and clearly communicate how you will monitor this to ensure that the election can be well-run and that voters receive a high-quality service wherever they are voting 
• co-ordinate and administer the planning of the election at the police area level, in line with the legislation and Electoral Commission guidance and performance standards
• take all necessary steps to ensure that the local authority provides you with the resources you need to fulfil your role, as they must do by law
• oversee the planning, project management and risk management of the election at police area level 
• provide guidance and support to LROs in preparing and maintaining a proper project plan and risk management approach for the election
• consider your approach to appointing deputies, including the number appointed and the purposes for which you are appointing them
• ensure that LROs have the necessary plans and arrangements in place for the conduct of the election in their voting area
• put in place a count protocol for the two-way communication of verification and count information between you and LROs
• provide guidance and support to your staff, monitor progress and receive regular feedback on activities
• support LROs in administering the election and provide appropriate oversight of their work including any directions you may have issued
• monitor the performance of LROs and identify and oversee any actions necessary to mitigate any issues arising
• ensure that your staff, and LROs and their staff, are appropriately trained to deliver the roles required of them
• ensure that election accounts are completed in a timely manner
• maintain an effective working relationship with your police Single Point of Contact (SPOC) 
   

This guidance has been produced taking account of, and should be read in accordance with, the requirements set out in the following legislation (as amended):

• Representation of the People Acts 1983, 1985 and 2000
• Government of Wales Acts 1998 and 2006
• Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000
• Representation of the People (England and Wales) Regulations 2001
• Representation of the People (Combination of Polls) (England and Wales) Regulations 2004
• Electoral Administration Act 2006
• The Local Elections (Principal Areas) (England and Wales) Rules 2006
• The Local Elections (Parish and Communities) (England and Wales) Rules 2006
• The Local Authorities (Mayoral Elections) (England and Wales) Regulations 2007
• Political Parties and Elections Act 2009
• Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act 2011
• The Local Authorities (Conduct of Referendums) (England) Regulations 2012
• The Neighbourhood Planning (Referendums) Regulations 2012
• The Police and Crime Commissioner Elections Order 2012
• The Police and Crime Commissioner Elections (Functions of Returning Officers) Regulations 2012
• The Police and Crime Commissioner Elections (Designation of Local Authorities) (No.2) Order 2012
• The Police and Crime Commissioner (Disqualification) (Supplementary Provisions) Regulations 2012
• The Police and Crime Commissioner Elections (Returning Officers’ Accounts) Regulations 2012
• The Police and Crime Commissioner Elections (LROs’ and Police Area Returning Officers’ Charges) Order 2012
• The Police and Crime Commissioner Elections (Welsh Forms) Order 2012
• Electoral Registration and Administration Act 2013
• The Transfer of Functions (Police and Crime Commissioner Elections) Order 2015
• Electoral Administration Act 2022
• Voter Identification Regulations 2022
• The Assistance with Voting for Persons with Disabilities (Amendments) Regulations 2022
• Police and Crime Commissioner Elections and Welsh Forms (Amendment) Order 2022
• Police and Crime Commissioner Elections (Designations etc.) (Amendment) Order 2022
• Representation of the People (Postal and Proxy Voting etc.) (Amendment) Regulations 2023 

The list above includes only the legislation which currently applies and that is directly relevant to this guidance. We expect further legislation to provide for amended conduct regulations, designation of PAROs and fees and charges.

Data protection legislation applies to the processing of all personal data. LROs are personally responsible for ensuring that they comply with the requirements of data protection legislation. We have published guidance to support you in meeting with your obligations under data protection legislation as it relates to your electoral administration responsibilities.

You are required to have regard to the public sector equality duty contained in Section 149 of the Equality Act 2010 when carrying out your duties.

As PARO you are also required to have regard to the Electoral Commission's guidance on accessibility.

PAROs in Wales must also have regard to the Welsh Language Act 1993 and the Welsh Language (Wales) Measure 2011, which require services in Wales to be delivered equally in English and in Welsh. 

Terminology

In this guidance we use the term ‘Local Returning Officer’ or ‘LRO’ to refer to the local government Returning Officer for a constituent council of the police area who will be responsible for administering the election at a local level. 

A constituent council at a PCC election is defined as either a county council that is wholly or partly within the police area or a district council that is within the police area.1

In areas where there is both a county council and a district council, the election will be administered at district level and the local RO will be RO for the district.2

A Police and Crime Commissioner election is a significant event which brings with it its own particular challenges. Having robust plans in place are crucial to ensure you are able to deliver a well-run election. 

This section of the guidance covers the planning you will need to do to support the co-ordination and delivery of the election, including the elements of the process you will need to liaise with your Local Returning Officers (LROs) about, project planning and implementation considerations.

This section also contains guidance on identifying, monitoring and mitigating risk, and developing plans to ensure the integrity of the election is maintained.

Finally, it provides guidance on how you will need to plan for your public awareness activity to promote both voter registration and provide information to support electors voting, and engagement with candidates and agents.

To help you meet any challenges, you will need to set up processes for effective co-operation and communication between the different Returning Officers (ROs) in your police area.

You will also need to put in place detailed and robust plans for monitoring and maintaining integrity across the police area.

There are several key points you should consider during your plans for these polls, including:

• whether you have scheduled combined polls in your police area, and what the scale of this combination would be
• the potential for any by-elections to be combined with the Police and Crime Commissioner election
• turnout projections and how this impacts on all stages of your election planning
• the knowledge and experience among LROs in your area and the processes involved at this type of election
• managing the candidates’ election address process including uploading to the website which contains the candidates’ campaign statements
• the knowledge and experience of candidates and agents, with the potential for a significant number of newer or less experienced candidates and the potential for more queries than you may be used to answering at other elections 
• any changes to the political landscape across all, or in parts, of the police area and any impact this may have
• significant scrutiny from voters, candidates and the media and how you manage the expectations of any stakeholders with an interest in the result

These elections will bring their own particular challenges, and your work to deliver a well-run police and crime commissioner election may come under considerable scrutiny – from voters, candidates and the media.

You should consider and learn lessons from experiences at all other recent polls in your area.

Nature of a Police and Crime Commissioner election

The elections involve co-ordination across a number of local authority areas including a co-ordinated public engagement strategy.

The evolving political landscape could mean that even in places where there have traditionally been large majorities, this may no longer be the case, meaning the focus and circumstances could be different from anything experienced in your area before.

There may be a number of new or less experienced candidates and agents who are unfamiliar with the practices and processes of an election and who will need your support to be able to participate effectively. Even those who are more experienced may have limited experience of standing at a PCC election.

Given the possibility of close and hard-fought contests, you should be prepared for the integrity of the elections to be scrutinised. Allegations and cases of electoral fraud will not only have a negative impact on the confidence of electors and campaigners, but they may also have a significant impact on your capacity to manage the elections process effectively.

It is therefore crucial that you:

• put in place detailed and robust plans for monitoring and maintaining the integrity of the elections in your area
• work closely with the local police to ensuring you have in place good lines of communication for referring any allegations.

Scale and turnout

Many aspects of planning for the elections will need to reflect assumptions as to the likely turnout. Establishing such assumptions at an early stage in planning is of key importance as the scope for adjusting plans is limited at a later stage in the process. There are always challenges with developing such planning assumptions, with it often being difficult to predict in advance of the election period what the levels of engagement in the particular polls are likely to be. 

Given the potential for high levels of interest and engagement in the elections, some of which may not emerge until close to the polls, the potential for a high turnout should be reflected in all aspects of planning for the polls.

As the polls become closer, the context will continue to evolve as the campaigns pick up pace. You will need to be prepared to react to events which could have an impact on the effective delivery of the polls, and this will include having robust contingency plans in place that you can turn to where required.

At any election there is the potential for a high number of applications for registration and voter authority certificates to be made close to the deadline. This should be anticipated and built into LRO planning, reflecting the lessons learnt by Electoral Registration Officers from the experience of recent electoral events. 

Turnout will also impact planning for the verfication and count. It is vital that appropriate provision is made to ensure that verification and count processes are as accurate and efficient as possible. You will need to co-ordinate the timing and organisation of verification and counting to ensure that they are carried out in a timely and effective way across the police area.

There are a range of other factors which will impact on how the verification and counting of votes will be managed in each police area - the size, population, geography and demographics of the police area, and the scale of combination, if any, will all have an impact on the available options for managing this part of the process. This re-enforces the need for early engagement and consultation on how these will be managed.

The media focus on the verification, count and declaration of results could be significant. It will be important to manage expectations, not only of the media but of all with an interest in the results, by consulting on your proposed approach and subsequently communicating clearly what you expect to deliver and by when, particularly where combination will impact on your expected result declaration times. 

Before you start planning for the election, you should ensure that you have carried out a review of the last equivalent or similar polls. Especially those with an element of regional management.

If you have not delivered a poll with an element of regional co-ordination previously, you should consider how you can learn from the experiences of others who have carried out such a role.

You should have:

• carried out a thorough evaluation of all processes outlined in your project plan for the previous election, 
• sought feedback from appropriate stakeholders, and
• produced a lessons learnt document to inform the project plan and risk register for future electoral events. 

You can find further information in our guidance on Reviewing the election.

The Commission has provided, as part of the template project plan, some sample objectives and suggested tools that will allow you to measure the extent to which the conduct of the election has been successful. The Commission has also provided an evaluation plan as part of the template project plan to assist you with the review process.

You should prepare a project plan and a risk register, treating each as a ‘living document’ and use them to both monitor progress and manage risks. You should use these documents to:

• set out what you want to achieve, and how you will measure success
• evaluate the planning and delivery of any previous polls, and use your findings to inform your planning
• liaise and seek input from Local Returning Officers (LROs) in your area in developing your risk register and ensure that they are aware of any risks you have identified, as well as any mitigations
• set up a project team
• set up a communications plan to support consistency in the delivery of the election across the police area
• establish a schedule of regular meetings with LROs
• cover how you will co-ordinate any public awareness activity across the police area
• establish a communications network involving a representative of each LRO to help share information and co-ordinate activity
• ensure where possible that any communication activity is co-ordinated with any national activity and any Commission registration activity or campaigning feeds into your plans
• ensure stakeholder communication is embedded throughout your planning, with particular arrangements in place for working with local or national media

The key objective of implementing project and risk management processes is to ensure that adequate preparations are made in advance of the poll, with risks identified and properly managed, so that the poll can be delivered effectively. 

You should set out at an early stage what you want to achieve and what success would look like for you, and this should be reflected in the objectives and success measures set out in your project plan. You should work with LROs in developing these objectives and success measures and ensure that they also reflect these in their own plans.

Project plan

You should prepare a project plan in relation to your functions as PARO, keep it under regular review and use it to monitor progress. If you are also an LRO, you may choose to integrate some or all of this into your wider election planning documentation. 

Your planning should ensure that:

• voters are able to vote easily and know that their vote will be counted in the way they intended 
• it is easy for people who want to stand for election to find out how to get involved, what the rules are, and what they have to do to comply with these rules
• everyone can have confidence to participate safely in the electoral process
• everyone can have confidence in the management of the process and the result

We have produced a template project plan that you may wish to use and adapt to fit your local circumstances. The template includes a number of example deliverables and you should also add in any other deliverables and tasks you identify as necessary, including ones specific to the circumstances in your police area.

Before starting your detailed planning, you should set out what you want to achieve and what success would look like. Your project plan should include clearly defined objectives and success measures. 

Your project plan should cover contingency planning and business continuity arrangements. The continuity arrangements should include provisions to cover loss of staff and loss of venues during the election period.

You should ensure that your plan covers the potential for the Police and Crime Commissioner election to be combined with unscheduled elections in parts or all of the police area.

Your project plan should also identify the resources and staffing required. You should take all necessary steps to ensure that the local authority makes the necessary resources available to you to enable you to discharge your functions. 

Risk register

You should prepare a risk register which should also be a living document and kept under regular review, especially at key points in the process when you have more information about the context of the election, such as at the close of nominations and the registration deadline. You should use your risk register to monitor the risks and document any changes in risk, as well as ensuring that mitigating actions are identified and are being taken forward, including by LROs where appropriate.

Your risk register should identify:

• any difficulties and problems that may occur, and the actions taken to mitigate them.
• the seriousness of any risk by indicating both the likelihood of the risk occurring and the impact of the risk if it did occur. 

Your risk register should consider risk and risk management in relation to your functions as PARO, plus any key risks relevant to the administration of the poll across the police area.

In developing your risk register you should ensure that you liaise with and seek input from LROs as necessary, and that they are aware of any risks you identify that may directly affect the election in their voting area, as well as any mitigating actions for which they are responsible. 

We have developed a template risk register that you may wish to use. The template provides some example risks and suggestions for mitigating those risks. In addition to the risks identified in the template you should also identify any other risks, including ones specific to your police area, and how you would mitigate those.

Security

Your project plan should include a review of security arrangements with the local police. You should also consider any security risks as part of your contingency planning exercise and include these in your risk register.

If you are printing the ballot papers yourself, your security arrangements should prevent unauthorised access to or use of the ballot papers during all stages of the production process and storage between printing and delivery to LROs.

We have published a non-date specific timetable containing the statutory deadlines as set out in the election rules which can be used to assist you in your planning. 

A date-specific timetable will be available on our website ahead of scheduled polls.

You should ensure that you have contingency arrangements in place to enable you to respond and deliver a well-run election should a by-election arise. Once an election has been called you will need to review your plans and develop arrangements for the specific context and timetable of the poll.

Although they are ERO functions, further information on the Voter Authority Certificate and Anonymous Elector's Document application deadline can be found in our ERO guidance for England and Wales. 

You can also find further information on the postal vote deadlines for England and Wales, and proxy vote deadlines for England and Wales in our ERO guidance.

Your overarching project plan should cover contingency planning and business continuity arrangements. This should link into the Local Returning Officers’ (LROs) plans to enable all elements of the delivery of the election to continue in the event of any unexpected issues or disruptions, including the impact of any unscheduled polls and by-elections that may occur.

It is important to keep your contingency plans under review and to re-visit and amend them periodically during the run up to the poll. In doing so, you should consider the success and continuing appropriateness of any existing measures, identify any improvements and expose any gaps.

Your contingency planning should include arrangements for the key areas of risk to the delivery of the election including:

Contractors

You should ensure that any suppliers that you or your LROs in your police area use – such as EMS providers and any external print providers – have their own detailed business continuity plans in place. You should be satisfied that their contingency arrangements are sufficient to enable you to perform your duties in the case of any interruptions in service whilst fulfilling their own contractual duties. For more information see our guidance for LROs on Managing the procurement process for outsourced work.

Venues

You and your LROs should prepare a list of alternative venues that are available at short notice for each stage of the elections process and brief staff on the contingency arrangements for using these venues that may affect their role. For more information, see our guidance for LROs, Identify and book suitable venues and Last minute changes to polling stations.

Staffing

You should monitor staffing levels across the police area, identifying solutions to enable you to respond if a sudden staffing shortage arose in one or more areas due to unavailability of recruited staff or an unexpected increase demand or workload. 

You should liaise with your HR department who can use their expertise to assist you with your planning. Neighbouring authorities with reciprocal agreements in place may also be able to offer additional support in managing any requirements for temporary staff for specific parts of the electoral process. For more information see our guidance for LROs on Allocating sufficient staff resources and providing training.

IT

IT plays a key role in many of the processes required to run the election. You should liaise with your IT services to ensure that you have adequate resources and contingency measures in place to allow you to perform your functions in the event of IT failure. This could include:

• improving any measures allowing remote working capabilities 
• having dedicated IT support during the election period
• storing certain files and documents locally to enable them to be accessed more easily
• sourcing any spare or alternative equipment that could be used as a backup, e.g. printers, laptops, routers
• testing any communication links used for the verification, count and result collation process, including contingency processes should IT systems fail.  

Security of electoral administration

Security risks should also be considered as part of your contingency arrangements, setting out how you will continue to deliver the election in the event of theft, fraudulent activity, or any other security risk as identified in your risk register. You should liaise with the police and business continuity experts from your council to identify risks and put appropriate continuity measures in place.

Additionally, you should work with your IT services to understand what preventative measures are in place for your council to protect against cyber-threats, such as ransomware attacks. The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) advises that examples of preventative measures could include:

• using Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)
• investing in vulnerability management
• having offline backups
• having a tested recovery plan in place

A White Paper on ransomware has been published from the NCSC and the National Crime Agency (NCA). The NCSC has also produced this guidance to help you assess the risks associated with IT and cyber-threats. 

Security of those participating

You should consider your plans to maintain the security of all those involved in each stage of the election, including your staff, candidates, agents and their campaigners. You should liaise with LROs and the relevant police single point of contact (SPOC) and force elected-official adviser (FEOA) as appropriate to identify local risks and put appropriate measures in place. For more information see our guidance for LROs on working with your local police force, security considerations at electoral events and how to manage attendees at the count.

Additional security guidance for elections for Returning Officers, candidates and agents is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/security-guidance-for-may-2021-elections.  

Your project plan should include details on how you will deliver the key processes, including nominations, administration of the election address process and publication of the addresses online, co-ordination of the verification, count and result collation.

Establishing realistic and robust assumptions can assist you in planning for delivering these key processes. Sound assumptions can provide useful evidence in explaining your decisions and you should therefore document them. Sharing the assumptions with stakeholders at an early stage will also allow them to be tested by others for robustness before the detailed planning has been completed and will help build confidence in your plans.

Your planning should include assumptions on expected:

• turnout on polling day
• turnout of postal voters
• number of candidates 
• availability of staff
• speed and capability of staff
• timings for completing each process

All plans and assumptions should be kept under regular review, and especially at key points of the process such as the close of nominations, where risks may change depending on the context of the election, and which may impact on your planning assumptions. This will help inform a realistic assessment of whether you will be able to deliver the overall plan, and whether and when it may be necessary to implement contingency plans. In all cases your plan should be flexible enough to allow you to respond if any of your assumptions change, covering what contingency actions you will take in such circumstances, and you should communicate with stakeholders throughout your planning process and be prepared to explain the reasons for the decisions you are taking. For key decisions, you should provide your reasons to stakeholders in writing.

Turnout

The expected turnout is a crucial factor in you and the LROs determining the planning and understanding what resources will be needed for most processes and how this will work in a co-ordinated way across the area in particular for co-ordination of the verification, count and result collation. You should decide what the expected turnout is likely to be - taking into account the potential for late engagement and interest in the elections by which point scope for adjusting plans will be limited. 

Your turnout estimate should be based on the assumption that, as a minimum, the turnout of voters will be not less than the turnout at the last equivalent polls. 

You should consider the impact of the changes to the postal vote application process and the impact of this on the volume of projected postal votes issued. 

It is always safest to err on the side of caution when it comes to turnout as national and local developments can result in rapid changes to the actual turnout.

The resources you and the LROs in your police area have available to conduct these processes, including numbers of staff and size of venue, will also be a relevant consideration to your planning. 

The number of parties and/or candidates

The number of parties and/or candidates standing at an election will also affect your planning considerations. For example, a large number of parties and/or candidates standing for election could mean that: 

• ballot papers will be large and staff and voters may be slower handling them
• more space will be required to accommodate the large ballot papers
• the counting process for separating the votes into bundles for particular parties and/or candidates may be slower and take up more space
• more space for candidates and agents may be required at the venues

In order to establish the likely number of parties and/or candidates you should:

• make early contact with the political parties
• monitor expressions of interest
• monitor requests for nomination packs

This information can then be taken into account when taking decisions on venues, count layout, necessary equipment and staffing requirements to ensure the safe and secure delivery of the election.

You should review your planning assumptions once you know the details of all the candidates tanding in your area, to ensure that they are still suitable or if any amendments are needed to ensure that polling day and the count run smoothly, safely and efficiently. 

For more information see our guidance on security considerations at electoral events. 

Staffing and timings

You should liaise with the LROs to understand the number of staff and the processes used at previous elections and the number of ballot papers that were processed. An evaluation of the processes and staffing ratios, and when the various stages of the election process were completed, can then be used to inform decisions for these elections.  

You should share these details and timings with stakeholders together with the assumptions that underpin them. 

Some stakeholders may hold expectations as to how quickly the processes can be completed which cannot be met in practice and this can lead to tension and frustration. To manage expectations, you should explain in some detail the processes involved and how long each stage is likely to take. For more on this, see our guidance on providing information on key election processes.

We recognise the importance of local knowledge and experience and that there is no ‘one size fits all approach’ which can be applied to, or even within, each police area. Every police area has its own set of circumstances which will influence your decisions on how best to ensure a consistent, high-quality experience for those voting and standing for election across the police area.

The PCC election is one election delivered across a number of local authority areas. You should therefore consider at an early stage how you will ensure that the election is administered to a consistent standard across the police area, so that voters receive a consistently high quality of service regardless of where they live and the election produces a result that is accepted. This should be reflected in the objectives and success measures set out in your project plan and should include whether you have issued (or intend to issue) guidance, and whether and how you have used (or intend to use) your power to give directions.

There will be aspects of the election process where you will particularly want to ensure that there is consistency, most notably in the areas that impact on the voters’ experience – for example, how LROs will meet their duty to ensure polling station voting is accessible to all voters, the issue of poll cards and postal votes, and the staffing of polling stations – as well as in respect of the verification and counting of votes. 

There are various tools available to you to ensure consistency. It is for you to decide, based on factors such as your knowledge, experience and relationships with the LROs in your area, and taking into consideration issues of scope and scale, how to best achieve the objectives set out in your election plan. Your power to give directions is one tool available for you to use, but whether to give directions, on what matters, and to whom is at your discretion.  

You may also choose to issue written guidance to LROs on particular aspects of the election. In order to effectively manage the result collation process, you should put in place a protocol for the transmission and receipt of local verification and count totals. In addition, you should arrange training and/or briefing sessions for LROs and their staff on such protocols.

Where the PCC election is combined with the poll at another election the power of direction will not always be capable of being used for some aspects of the process depending on which RO is responsible for them in practice. Therefore, other tools to ensure consistency – such as co-operation and consultation – will be crucial.

Your project plan should reflect how and when you will reach a decision on your approach to managing and co-ordinating the poll in your police area and how you will implement this approach in practice. It should also include a communications strategy to support this work.

As a minimum, you should have in place processes for monitoring the delivery of the PCC elections across the whole of the police area, including compliance with any directions and/or guidance you have given. You should think about how you will support other LROs and electoral administrators in the area in managing the polls and in dealing with any emerging issues.

The Commission’s teams across England and Wales will be available to support you throughout the PCC election. Further detail on our plans for support and monitoring at any scheduled elections will be included in a future bulletin.

As part of your planning process you should identify what directions you are planning to issue to Local Returning Officers (LROs), although there may of course be issues that arise at a later stage on which it becomes desirable or necessary for you to give directions at short notice. Should you decide that the use of directions is appropriate, your project plan should include specific plans for developing and issuing directions and a communications strategy to support this process.

If you are considering giving directions or guidance to LROs you should take into account any relevant criteria in the performance standards framework and/or Electoral Commission guidance. The performance standards framework and Commission guidance reflect what we and the UK Electoral Advisory Board (EAB) and the Association of Electoral Administrators (AEA) agree that Returning Officers need to do to prepare for and deliver well-run elections. This shared agreement, along with the flexibility in how the standards are achieved, should reduce the potential risk of conflict between the criteria of the standards and any guidance or directions issued by PAROs.

If you do intend to give any guidance or directions that are different or contrary to the criteria of the standards, please contact your local Commission team in the first instance to discuss the implications. This will ensure that we can avoid, as far as possible, unresolved conflicting requirements being placed on LROs and that LROs can be clear as to what is expected of them.

In deciding whether to give a direction on a particular aspect of the election, and what that direction should be, you should aim wherever possible to consult your LROs, so that you can take into account any relevant local factors in making your decisions. This consultation should help to reduce the risk of any directions having unintended consequences and potentially maximise the ability of LROs to comply with them. 

In particular, you should ensure that when you are deciding on any potential directions you intend to give, you have considered and consulted with other ROs on whether and how the direction applies in areas where polls are combined. 

Any consultation on possible directions should be planned for and completed in good time to enable the prompt and timely communication of your decision and any associated directions to LROs, to enable them to plan and prepare for the election accordingly.

If you decide to exercise your power of direction, you should do so with regard to the following principles and aims:

• trust: people should be able to trust the way our elections work
• participation: it should be straightforward for people to participate in our elections (whether as campaigners, candidates or voters) and people should be confident that their vote counts
• consistency across the police area
• transparency
• professionalism
• accurate results in which people can have confidence

You should communicate any directions to LROs at the earliest opportunity, and in particular any requiring them to take specified preparatory steps. You should keep a record of what directions have been given, when, and to whom. 

LROs are legally required to comply with any directions you issue. However, your plans for giving directions should take account of the fact that there may be circumstances where LROs are unable to comply with a direction, for whatever reason. You should therefore ensure that you develop plans to deal with these situations, which may include establishing a process for considering requests for exceptions to your directions. You should keep a record of any instances where you have agreed that a LRO can deviate from a direction.

You are personally liable for the conduct of the PCC election relating to your role and duties. Where polls are combined you are personally liable for the functions that fall to you as PARO. 

You may appoint one or more deputies to assist you in delivering the election, and you should take steps to put the arrangements you identify as appropriate in place at an early stage in the process.1 As a minimum you should ensure that you appoint one or more deputies to assume your role in case you are unable to act personally as PARO. 

You should ensure that any deputies appointed have the skills and knowledge required to carry out the functions that they have been assigned. You must make any appointment of a deputy in writing and should include details of the functions that the deputy is authorised to exercise on your behalf.2 The deputy’s acceptance should also be given in writing.

While you can appoint one or more deputies to discharge any or all of your functions, you cannot delegate your personal responsibility for the conduct of the election or any aspects of it that you are responsible for delivering. 

You should establish a project team to support you in carrying out your functions as PARO. The project team should include the relevant key staff to support you in each specific function, including encouraging and co-ordinating electoral participation across the police area and ensuring that candidates’ election addresses are compliant with legislation.

In addition to yourself your project team should include:

• other Returning Officers in the police area
• where a Local Returning Officer is not also the Electoral Registration Officer (ERO), the ERO
• any appointed deputies
• other election staff members
• any other key personnel you consider appropriate (such as, for example, colleagues from your council’s communications team or your local SPOC)

The project team should have a clear remit and understanding of the tasks to be carried out. At the planning stage a schedule of meetings should be prepared, and a record of each meeting should be kept as an audit trail of what was discussed and of any decisions made. Where possible, you should chair any formal meetings of the project team.

You need to have access to the registers for all local authority areas within the police area for checking whether the subscribers to a candidate’s nomination are valid. You may either collect register copies from all EROs in your area so that you can carry out the checks yourself, or you may wish to delegate the checking to Local Returning Officers (LROs).

Candidates will require access to the electoral registers to:

• complete their nomination form
• help them campaign
• check that donations are permissible

The Commission has produced template electoral register and lists of absent voters request forms that candidates can use.

You can find detailed information on access and supply of the full electoral register and absent voters lists to candidates, registered political parties (who can request a copy at any time) and others in the access and supply section of our guidance for EROs in England and Wales.

You will need to ensure your plans outline the processes and safeguards you will have in place regarding the transfer and security of the data included on the electoral registers.

You should start discussions with the EROs in the police area at an early stage about how this can best be achieved in practice. You will need to take into account any practical issues related to managing registers if they have been produced by different software suppliers.

If there is a need for exchanging data electronically, you should agree the timings for the exchange of data and ensure that a test of the process is carried out ahead of the first scheduled transfer. You should ensure that data protection is considered and that any transfer of data is secure.

You can find more detailed advice on storing personal data securely and maintaining your document retention policy, including what it should contain, in our guidance on Data Protection. 

You will also need to ensure there is an agreement in place between you and each ERO in the police area for secure data transfer and destruction of data. Although data protection legislation does not require a written agreement when sharing data between data controllers, it is strongly recommended that you agree a data sharing protocol with any other EROs in the police area.

There will be updates to the data at a number of points within the election timetable, as the ERO must publish two interim election notices of alteration as well as the final election notice of alteration. We have published guidance in England  and Wales on monthly notices of alteration which contain the dates related to the publication of these notices. 

You should lead on putting in place a single integrity plan for the whole of the police area that covers the specific steps you will take to identify and deal with any potential electoral fraud or security concerns and how you will communicate your approach to provide confidence in the elections process to all stakeholders. You should do this in discussion with the police and Local Returning Officers (LROs), ensuring that any LRO integrity plans do not conflict with your own plan for the police area.

Voters and campaigners should be confident that elections are free from fraud, everyone can safely take part in the election process, and that the results you declare are a true and accurate reflection of the will of the electorate. Trust and confidence in the integrity and security of elections is essential but can be fragile – it will be difficult for you to rebuild trust or confidence which has been lost as a result of allegations or proven cases of fraud. It is also vital that candidates and campaigners can participate free from intimidation or risk. 

Planning for the prevention of electoral fraud and safe delivery of electoral events

While you will need to be able to work with the police, including your police Election Single Point of Contact (SPOC), Force Elected-Official Adviser (FEOA), and prosecutors to investigate any allegations which might be made, you should also put in place effective strategies for managing the safe delivery of electoral events and the prevention of electoral fraud from the outset.

In order to ensure that voters and candidates can have confidence that votes will be cast and counted in the way voters intended, you will need to have in place plans and processes to identify any patterns of activity that might indicate potential electoral fraud. You should review any mitigations for specific risks that you have identified regularly. 

You should establish and maintain contact with the police at an appropriate level as part of this. The police Election SPOC officer will be able to provide you with contact details for the relevant force command or lead unit and will also be able to explain any divisional structure within the force if appropriate. You should ensure that you are provided with the contact details of any divisional Election SPOCs and FEOAs and ensure that the LROs within the police area schedule regular contact with them. 

Your plan for maintaining the integrity of the election should be developed in consultation with your Election SPOC. Your police Election SPOC is your contact for election-related crime, including allegations of fraud. Your police FEOA is a dedicated police contact for raising security concerns and sharing any relevant intelligence involving any elected officials and candidates for those roles. For more information see our guidance for LROs on working with your local police force.  

Your plans should include specific steps to maintain the security of the elections and identify and deal with any potential electoral fraud, and should also identify how you will communicate your approach to maintaining electoral integrity in order to support public confidence in the election.

You should plan how you will share candidate contact details (such as email addresses and telephone numbers) with the FEOA to enable them to contact candidates and agents directly with updated security guidance. You should review your data protection policies and privacy notices to ensure these are fit for purpose. For more information, see our guidance on the lawful processing of personal data.

Integrity plans prepared by LROs should fit within the police area plan and include any issues they have identified locally. Guidance for LROs on integrity plans can be found in our Returning Officer guidance. You should ensure that you have considered the specific risks relating to each of the voting areas within the police area as a whole, including taking into account previous allegations of electoral fraud and the risk of electoral fraud allegations relating to other polls taking place on the same day as the PCC election. There are a number of electoral offences specified in electoral law and the College of Policing Authorised Professional Practice has produced information on these offences and how they will be investigated.  

You should discuss your plans with your Election SPOC at the earliest opportunity. A checklist of topics that should be considered at any pre-election planning meeting between you and your SPOC is available. You should, as part of this meeting, consider the possibility of any joint publicity work that can be carried out with the police, for example, jointly running public awareness campaigns within the electoral area to highlight what can be done to help detect and prevent electoral fraud.

Your plans should include specific steps to deal with any safety concerns throughout the process, such as:

• If there is an immediate and direct threat to personal safety and/or the incident is currently ongoing and urgent, the candidate and/or their staff or family should call 999 as a priority.
• If the incident does require an urgent response but is not currently ongoing or an immediate threat, it is important to use the 101 service or Contact us | Police.uk (www.police.uk).This is the easiest and quickest way to record incidents and obtain the allocation of appropriate resources and gain a reference number.
• Neither the FEOA, nor Election SPOC, is the right person to contact to record these incidents and may not be even on duty when they occur. They will be notified though, via internal processes. Both of these Officers will be aware of the incidents and the Election SPOC may well manage crimes of election fraud, but this is not part of the FEOA role

Your plans should also cover specific steps to deal with any potential electoral fraud such as:

• an agreed approach for referring allegations of fraud for further investigation where appropriate
• establishing a process for handling evidence, so that the police can carry out any forensic analysis
• any specific risks you have identified in addition to any general fraud detection plans
   

 In particular, you should agree with your Election SPOC an approach for security concerns or referring allegations of fraud you may receive for further investigation where appropriate. For example, will you or the LROs be the initial point of contact and refer allegations to the relevant Election SPOC, or will the relevant Election SPOC be the initial point of contact and advise you of allegations? In addition, you should agree a mechanism for handling evidence, so that the police can carry out any forensic analysis, where necessary. 

A template memorandum of understanding between LROs and the police on joint planning for elections and the reporting and investigating of electoral fraud is available on the College of Policing Authorised Professional Practice website. Elements of this document can also be adapted for any memorandum of understanding between you and the police.

You should also share the approach to maintaining the security of the election and tackling electoral fraud with parties, candidates and agents at briefing sessions and/or within the information provided to them. You should invite the police to attend any such briefing sessions and invite them to supply you with any relevant documentation to include in your information pack.

In some cases, where there is a significant risk of electoral fraud allegations or to the safe delivery of electoral processes, you should also consider communicating your approach to tackling fraud or addressing security concerns more widely in advance of polling day to provide reassurance to voters and campaigners. 

Following consultation with ROs, police forces and political parties, the Commission has issued a Code of Conduct for campaigners at elections and referendums. The Code applies to all campaigners, and sets out agreed standards of appropriate behaviour before and during an election or referendum. The Code also makes it clear that if a Returning Officer considers it appropriate to address further specific local risks, and has consulted with relevant national and local parties, we will support them in introducing additional local provisions which go beyond the terms of the nationally agreed Code. 

The College of Policing Authorised Professional Practice have developed a template letter seeking agreement from candidates to abide by the Code of Conduct and this should be provided to all candidates standing at the election.

You are uniquely placed to identify incidents and patterns of activity that might indicate electoral fraud in your area. Effective early action to address possible fraud could help to avoid costly police investigations or legal challenges to the results of elections.  

You should ensure that you have mechanisms in place to assess the risk of electoral fraud in your area, including considering:

• whether there has been a history of allegations of electoral fraud in parts of the police area, including in specific wards
• whether the election is likely to be particularly close and hard fought 
• whether the contest which is based on strong personal disagreements as well as political arguments
• where there is a highly mobile population with a frequent turnover of electors where there are electors who may be more vulnerable because of low levels of literacy and/or English language ability

Your plans for managing the risk of electoral fraud across the police area will need to reflect any specific risks you or Local Returning Officers (LROs) have identified in addition to any general fraud detection plans.

For example, you should consider the risks associated with houses of multiple occupation, student halls of residence or care homes where other people may have access to personal mail or where care givers may assist residents in care homes with completing postal vote applications or postal votes.

Your plans should also set out mechanisms for monitoring indicators of possible electoral fraud and setting thresholds for action in response. Although there are no definitive signs of possible electoral fraud, you should be aware of and consider with LROs and EROs whether: 

• there have been unusual patterns in registration, absent vote, or Voter Authority Certificate applications at other elections in the police area 
• there have been unusual patterns of rejected ballot papers, including rejected postal ballot packs, at other elections in the combined authority area
• there is any unusual pattern of registration, absent vote or Voter Authority Certificate applications in the period leading up to the election.

Allegations and cases of electoral fraud will not only have a negative impact on the confidence of electors and campaigners, but they may also have a significant impact on your capacity to manage the election process effectively.

You should ensure that all candidates and agents understand how to raise specific concerns about electoral fraud relating to the election, including what type and level of evidence will be necessary to enable allegations to be investigated by the police. You should also ensure that they understand how allegations will be dealt with, and what information and feedback they should be able to expect about the progress of any investigations.  

The police will investigate any allegations of fraud until, following consultation with the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), they are either satisfied that no further action is necessary or appropriate, or they forward the case file to the CPS for prosecution. The police should keep you and, where appropriate, the Local Returning Officer (LRO) and Electoral Registration Officer (ERO) informed of the progress of the case.   

You should also be aware that, because of the unique nature of the Police and Crime Commissioner elections, there may be instances when the police force decides that it would be appropriate to ask another force to investigate allegations of electoral fraud relating to these elections. In such an instance, you should ensure that you make contact with the relevant lead officer from the force leading the investigation as quickly as possible.

The College of Policing has produced guidance for policing elections on their website.

Candidates and their agents must follow rules set out in legislation about how much they can spend at an election. We produce guidance for candidates and agents, parties and non-party campaigners outlining rules on spending. This can be found on our website. 

Any queries on election spending should be referred to the Electoral Commission’s Party Election Finance team via email: [email protected] or telephone: 0333 103 1928. 

As PARO you will need to put in place communication plans to support the delivery of the election. These plans should support you in effectively liaising with and co-ordinating the work of LROs to ensure the consistent delivery of the poll across the police area, and with managing stakeholder co-ordination and communication, including media liaison.

When developing your communication plans you should identify and document how you will communicate in relation to key aspects of your approach to managing and co-ordinating the poll, including:

• consulting on and giving guidance and, where appropriate, directions 
• disseminating information
• monitoring LRO planning and performance
• communicating your plans for the processes for which you are responsible, particularly nominations and result collation
• co-ordinating public awareness activity
• providing advice and support to, and dealing with enquiries from, LROs and their staff

You should establish a schedule of regular meetings with LROs from across the police area to discuss options and issues, with a view to, where possible, reaching consensus on the decisions you need to make to deliver the election and meet the identified objectives and success measures. A record of each meeting should be kept as an audit trail of what was discussed and of any decisions made.

You must take such steps as you think appropriate to encourage the participation of electors in the election, and in carrying out such activity you must have regard to any guidance issued by the Electoral Commission.1  

Part of this engagement activity should include how the LROs in your area will communicate the voting process and support available for disabled voters in their areas. This should be both directly with local disability organisations and more general signposting to accessible communications, such as providing online versions of documents that are easy-read, compatible with screen-readers, or available in large print.

As PARO you should actively take the lead in promoting and sharing good practice and in co-ordinating awareness activity across the police area.

Your planning should take into account the need to work with LROs in your police area to ensure that local and police-area wide awareness activity is co-ordinated and that clear, consistent messages are communicated effectively to electors.

When preparing the public awareness strategy for your police area, you should document:

• the identification of your target audience
• the objectives and success measures of the activity
• any risks – and mitigation of those risks
• resources – financial and staffing
• plans for collaborative working with relevant local partners, including experts in the communications department of your local authority 

Implementation of your strategy should be included within your overall project plan.

You should establish a communications network involving a representative of each LRO in your police area to share information and co-ordinate public awareness activity across the police area. This network can also be used to ensure that any communication relating to specific aspects of the election, such as the verification and counting of votes or the declaration of result, or issues that arise, for example allegations of electoral fraud, are dealt with effectively and consistently across the police area.

You must publish notices by posting them in a conspicuous place or places within the police area.1 This should include local authority offices, noticeboards, libraries and other public buildings. The notice may also be given in such other manner as you think fit. 

In order to ensure that voters can receive the information they need, in an accessible format and within time for them to cast their vote, you should ensure that any notices that you publish are easily accessible for voters, such as through your local authority website. You should ensure that any notices published on your website are in an accessible format.

If you are making information available on your website you should ensure it is accessible to all voters. For example, 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 and other assistive technologies. The UK Government has produced a guide to producing accessible PDFs you can refer to. You could also speak to your authority’s equalities officer for advice.

You will also need to consider how you will supply any notices for local publication by the LROs in your police area in order to enable timely publication. You should liaise with the LROs in your police area to ensure that the notices they are required to publish locally are also made accessible.

In accordance with data protection legislation, you will need to consider whether it is appropriate or necessary for the notices to remain published, on your website or elsewhere, beyond the expiry of the petition period for that election. You will also need to decide who will be responsible for removing them at the appropriate time. You can find more information about this in our guidance on data protection. 

Where the notices serve specific purposes, i.e. advising who will be a candidate at the election, once the election is over, and the opportunity to question that election has passed, they serve no further purpose. Therefore, you should either remove the notices, or remove the personal data contained in the notices, once the petition deadline for the election has passed.

Data protection legislation does permit personal data to be stored for longer periods if the data will be processed solely for archiving purposes in the public interest, or for scientific, historical, or statistical purposes and subject to the implementation of appropriate safeguards. For notices of election results, for example, you should retain these on your website as they are for public interest and historical and statistical purposes.

You should have robust proof-checking processes in place to ensure that there are no errors on the notices you are required to publish. Having robust proof-checking processes in place could help detect any errors and avoid any potential data breaches before they occur.

Translation and formats of notices

You are required, where you consider it appropriate to do so, to ensure that notices are translated or provided in another format. You may produce them:2   

• in Braille 
• in languages other than English (or in Wales, English and Welsh)
• using graphical representations
• in audio format 
• using any other means of making information accessible

In order to effectively communicate information to electors you should consider who you want to reach through your awareness activity and the method of communication to be used. You should take advice and seek input from relevant staff at your local authority. You should also take into account any national registration campaign being carried out by the Electoral Commission and seek to co-ordinate activity in your area with the national activity as appropriate. 

Information required by electors in order to successfully participate may include:

• details of the election(s) 
• the date and hours of poll 
• the location of polling stations 
• any key deadlines (e.g. deadlines for applying to register to vote, for postal or proxy votes and for applying for a voter authority certificate)  
• what photographic ID is accepted in the polling station
• how to mark the ballot paper(s)
• assistance available to electors and how to request reasonable adjustments (e.g. equipment to enable disabled voters to vote independently in the polling station) and how to request information in alternative formats (e.g. braille, easy read, large print)
• how and when votes are counted 
• how the result will be made known 

In the lead-up to scheduled polls, the Commission may run a public awareness campaign to encourage registration. Such a campaign will usually involve mass media advertising, working with partners and public relations activities. We will also provide resources that can be used locally, such as posters, online banners, template press releases and social media content. 

We will provide you with information on our public awareness campaigns via the EA Bulletin. We also publish a voter registration newsletter, Roll Call, which aims to help local council communications teams stay up-to-date with the latest campaign information and resources. You and your council communications team can sign up to receive the newsletter here.

You should ensure that all outgoing communications provide appropriate contact details to allow anyone to respond and obtain further information. You should consider what contact details are most appropriate in each case, working with LROs and their staff as required.

You can find further information on Engaging with voters in our guidance for Local Returning Officers (LROs), the production of voter materials for PAROs and quality assuring election materials in our guidance for LROs. The public may also proactively make enquiries and you need to consider how a consistent approach to addressing such enquires can be achieved. You could, for example, consider developing agreed responses to FAQs for front line staff. We have produced FAQs for frontline staff at elections in England which you could use. 

Where is my polling station?’ is a common question in the run-up to polling day and on polling day itself. In partnership with the Democracy Club we provide a postcode search tool on our website. When voters enter their postcode, they are shown where their polling station is, and who their candidates are. You could embed this tool on your own website, using the widget, or add a link to our website.

To facilitate this we need you to send the polling station data for your area to Democracy club. If you are also the LRO once you have finalised your polling stations, you can export the data from your EMS, and email it to [email protected]. Detailed instructions are available for each supplier, if you need them.

We also provide your contact details in our postcode search tool. If your contact details change we ask that you let us know as soon as possible so that we can update our records. 

As PARO you are responsible for all aspects of the nomination process at the PCC election. Your project plan should include details on how you will engage with political parties, candidates and agents and how you will manage the nominations process.

It should be straightforward for those campaigning to participate in elections. As PARO you are responsible for putting in place an effective communication plan. You should work with Local Returning Officers (LROs) to co-ordinate engagement with candidates and agents across the police area, and put plans in place to ensure that candidates and agents are provided with clear and timely information. You should plan for candidate and agent briefings early in the election process. 

You should consider if there are any specific local circumstances or local information that your LROs may want to communicate such as the timing and location of postal vote openings and the count, any security measures that will be in place, and whether this will form part of your communications or if the LROs will provide information relevant to their areas. 

You should take steps at an early stage to estimate how many candidates might stand for election as this can have a significant impact on various elements of the electoral process, including the printing of ballot papers, nominations, the management of the candidate information process, as well as the verification and count. In order to develop this estimate, and to keep it under review, you should consider how many candidates stood at the last PCC election, make early contact with political parties, monitor any expressions of interest and, in due course, monitor requests for nomination packs. 

There may be a significant number of new or less experienced candidates, agents and political parties who are unfamiliar with the practices and processes of standing for election and who will need your support to be able to participate effectively. It is therefore important that you engage candidates, agents and parties as much as possible so that they receive all the information they need in order to stand for election and they can have confidence that the processes are well-managed. 

It is vital that all candidates know what they need to do in order to stand for election, what the spending limits are, how they can obtain the electoral registers and what the restrictions are on the use of the registers, including data protection considerations. One difficulty likely to be faced by PAROs is that those intending to stand for election do not always make contact with the elections staff before submitting their nomination papers. You will therefore need to consider how you are going to raise awareness and promote the availability of information and briefings to all candidates and agents before they complete and submit their nomination papers. 

You will need to have discussions with local Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) to determine how you will obtain copies of the electoral register to candidates and what your approach will be for the required candidate subscriber checks during the nomination period. 

You will need to ensure that the requirements as to the content of candidate election addresses are complied with, alongside the procedures for submitting those addresses.

You should ensure that candidates and election agents are offered a briefing session on the election processes, including local arrangements. 

You should also hold an additional briefing session after the list of candidates standing for election has been confirmed after the close of nominations.

As a minimum, your briefing should cover:

• the nomination process
• the election process
• election spending
• accessing the electoral register
• handling of postal votes restrictions on the handling of postal voting documents by campaigners
• the Code of conduct for campaigners in Great Britain

You should also inform candidates and agents that Voter Identification requirements are in place for this poll. This is especially important if other polls are being run in your police area where photographic ID is not a requirement. For example in Wales if local by-elections are being combined with the PCC. 

You will also need to work with any Local Returning Officers (LROs) to decide how information about local arrangements will be provided. This will include information about how they will run key election processes and the dates, times and venues, such as: 

• postal vote issues and openings
• polling day, including the equipment provided to polling stations that makes voting easier for disabled people 
• the verification and count, including any additional security measures that will be in place

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 emphasise the importance of candidates understanding the qualifications and disqualifications that apply, as some are different to those that typically apply at other elections (particularly, the one relating to being convicted of an imprisonable offence) and could cause confusion even amongst those who have stood for election before. You should also provide information on the standards of behaviour you expect from supporters in the area of the polling place on polling day, and during the verification and count.

Each candidate at a PCC election may provide an election address to the PARO for publication on a website provided by the Secretary of State. A candidate’s election address must be prepared by their election agent and submitted to you on a form prescribed in law by a deadline set by you.1 As part of your planning, you will need to consider how you are going to manage this process in practice. Further guidance on the website will be provided by MHCLG.

Your briefing session(s) should also highlight any security arrangements that have been put in place in consultation with the police, including your plans to share candidate email/phone number contact details with your local force elected-official adviser (FEOA) to help maintain candidate safety. You should advise candidates of how their contact details will be used and provide an opportunity to opt out if necessary. 

You should also invite your police single point of contact (SPOC) to attend any briefing sessions and FEOA, or to provide written material that you can provide to candidates and agents.

Additional security guidance for candidates and agents is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/security-guidance-for-may-2021-elections.  

We have produced a template presentation for candidates and agents at a Police and Crime Commissioner election that you can use which is available to download from our website in both English and Welsh. 

You should ensure that all candidates and election agents have access to written guidance on the election process, including local arrangements, and that the information is provided in good time to enable candidates and agents to act on it. As set out in our guidance on communicating with Candidates and Agents you should work with Local Returning Officers (LROs) in your police area to ensure that candidates at the PCC election have easy access to information on any processes that are to be carried out locally, such as the opening of postal votes and the count and any entry requirements or additional security measures put in place.

Candidates, agents and their supporters should also be briefed on the standards of behaviour that are expected at electoral events. 

The purpose of providing written guidance is so that parties, candidates and 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 candidates and agents with a link to where they can find the relevant information online and it will be for you to ensure in each case that candidates and agents can easily access the information they need and to do whatever is necessary to facilitate this. 

You should also direct candidates and agents to the Commission’s guidance for candidates and agents at a police and crime commissioner election, which is available on our website.

Accessibility

You should bear in mind that candidates and agents may have 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 or, in Wales, Welsh.

You should also consider that candidates and 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 candidates and 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 candidates and 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.

Candidates are required by law to follow certain rules regarding:

• how much they can spend 
• who they can accept donations from 
• what they must report after the election

You should ensure that candidates and election agents have access to information on the spending limit,1 spending returns and declarations in order to enable them to meet reporting requirements. 

We have produced guidance for candidates and agents on spending and donations at a police and crime commissioner election which can be found in of our guidance for candidates and agents, which you can use to provide candidates and agents with information on spending limits and donation controls, as well as returns and declarations in order to enable them to meet their reporting requirements.

Our template presentation for candidates and agents also contains guidance on spending and donations. You can use these resources to provide candidates and agents with information on spending returns and declarations in order to enable them to meet their reporting requirements.

Once a person becomes a candidate at a PCC election as defined in the paragraphs below, they can request a copy of the full register and absent voters’ lists covering the police area they are standing in. Registers can only be supplied if the candidate has made a written request.1

The earliest a person can officially become a candidate is on the last day for the publication of notice of election (i.e. on the 25th working day before the poll).2 They will officially become a candidate on this day if on or before this date they have already declared that they are a candidate at the election (or another person has declared that they are a candidate).

If after this date they or others declare that they will be a candidate at the election, they will become a candidate on the date such a declaration is made, or on the date that they submit their nomination papers, whichever is the earlier.

While the legal responsibility for receiving requests and supplying registers to candidates’ rests with the Electoral Registration Officer (ERO) for each voting area, you should start discussions with EROs at an early stage to determine how best to ensure that all candidates can be supplied with registers in such a way that they have timely and easy access to them, and decide how this will be communicated.

For example, you could decide to supply the registers centrally on behalf of the EROs as part of the nomination pack. The benefit of this approach is that it could operate so that candidates would only need to complete one request form covering all voting areas and receive their registers from a single place, instead of having to approach each ERO separately with individual requests.

If you are considering supplying the registers centrally, you will have to discuss and agree with the EROs how the various registers could be brought together for subsequent supply and consider how this would work for both printed and data copies. The registers must be supplied in data form unless a printed copy has been specifically requested.3 You will need to ensure that whatever arrangements you put in place are clearly communicated to the candidates and their agents to enable them to use the registers to campaign and obtain the necessary subscribers. 

Requesting the register outside of the election period

Political parties and elected representatives are also entitled to request a copy of the electoral register outside of the election period.

You can find more information in our guidance for EROs on free supply of the full register for England and Wales.

The media plays an important role in providing information to voters on the election. It is important that media communication is managed in a co-ordinated and consistent way across the police area in order to maintain public confidence that the election is being well-run. To achieve this effectively there should be a clear process in place for the police area to be followed by you, LROs and your respective communications teams to respond to any issues that arise.

You should ensure that stakeholder co-ordination and communication is embedded throughout your planning, with particular arrangements in place for working with the media, including:

• plans for co-ordinating media liaison within the police area, and strategies for dealing with both proactive communication and media liaison in relation to specific events such as the verification and counting of votes and the result declaration
• processes for dealing with general media enquiries
• plans for reactive handling of any issues that arise in relation to the election, for example allegations of electoral fraud 

Observers accredited by the Commission are entitled to observe:

• the issue and receipt of postal ballot papers
• the poll
• the verification and counting of the votes
• the collation of the result1

Your project plan should include processes to manage potential enquiries from observers and to support their attendance at the electoral processes they are entitled to attend. This should include providing observers with information on the location and timing of the above processes.

Commission representatives are also entitled to observe these processes and, in addition, are entitled to observe your working practices.2

Accredited observers and Commission representatives do not need to give advance notification of where they intend to observe, but will carry with them a photographic identification card issued by the Commission.

Quick guide to the observer badge types
 

Observer badge type	Who are they?	Access
	Electoral Commission representatives	Same as candidates and agents, plus access to the issue of postal votes, and working practices of the RO and ERO
	Observers accredited by the Commission	Same as candidates and agents, plus access to the issue of postal votes

If you are in doubt about the status of a particular individual seeking to gain access to election processes, you can check the registers of observers on the Commission’s website. 

You have a legal duty to have regard to the Code of practice for electoral observers when managing the attendance of observers.3 Observers will have agreed to comply with the standards of behaviour set out in the Commission’s Code of practice. If you think there has been a breach of the Code of practice, please inform your local Commission team. 

For more information on the role of observers see our guidance for accredited electoral observers.

It is vital to the delivery of the election that voters can receive the information they need, without errors, in an accessible format and within time for them to take necessary action in relation to their vote. 

This guidance provides an overview of the legal requirements relating to the function of the PARO and their coordination with LROs for poll cards, ballot papers, and absent voting arrangements. 

Local government ROs and Local Returning Officers (LROs) (as appropriate) are required by law to send out poll cards as soon as practicable after the publication of the notice of election. 

In order to ensure that voters receive the same information at a similar time regardless of where they live in the police area, you should liaise and agree with local government ROs and LROs (as appropriate) on timings for the delivery of poll cards.1

You can find more information on the production of poll cards in our guidance for LROs delivering PCC elections. 

LROs are responsible for the production of ballot papers for their voting area. You may take on responsibility for printing ballot papers in any or all voting areas by giving direction to the relevant LRO. 

If you intend to take on this responsibility you should notify the relevant LROs at the outset of the election planning process, and provide them with information as soon as possible about when and how ballot papers will be delivered to them for issue in postal ballot packs and use in polling stations. If you do decide to issue a direction to print the ballot papers yourself, then data protection considerations and effective management of contractors and suppliers will be critical.

If LROs have retained responsibility for the printing of PCC ballot papers, once the deadline for withdrawal of nominations has passed, you will need to give clear and timely information to LROs about the final details of the ballot paper to enable them to confirm the exact specifications with their printers and commence printing. This includes the precise size and layout, and candidate details (i.e. name, address information, description (if any) and emblem (if any)). 

You may wish to give specific guidance or directions to local Returning Officers as you think appropriate, to ensure that the form and content of the ballot papers issued at the election meet the legislative requirements and is consistent across the whole of the police area. 

You should have processes in place to ensure that LROs print the ballot papers correctly, including that the candidate details on the ballot paper are reproduced accurately, and that the correct emblems and font type and size have been used. You should provide a template ballot paper that LROs can use as a basis for printing the ballot papers in their voting area, and against which they can check printing proofs and final versions of the ballot papers.

You should also consider putting in place a process to proof check LROs ballot papers yourself before printing commences in order to satisfy yourself that all the ballot papers across the police area will be printed correctly.

The ballot papers cannot be produced in any language other than English, or, in Wales, in English and Welsh, or other than in the prescribed format. However, both the enlarged hand-copy and the display copies of the ballot paper must have the instructions for voters printed at the top of the paper, and these words may be translated into languages other than English and Welsh.

You can find more information on the production of ballot papers, including the official mark, the printing of candidates’ details and data protection considerations in our LRO guidance for PCC elections on the Production of ballot papers.

Secure transfer of information

You will need to ensure your plans outline the processes and safeguards you will have in place regarding the transfer and security of the data between yourself and LROs.

You will need to ensure there is an agreement in place between you and each LRO in the police area for the secure data transfer and destruction of data. Our data protection guidance contains more detailed advice on storing personal data securely and maintaining your document retention policy, including what it should contain.

Although data protection legislation does not require a written agreement when sharing data between data controllers, it is strongly recommended that you agree a data sharing protocol with other LROs in the police area. 

You can find more information on managing contractors and suppliers in our LRO guidance for PCC elections. 

If you are taking on the responsibility for printing ballot papers and intend to send data to a contractor to produce ballot papers for the election, you are using a data processor.   

As a data controller, data protection legislation imposes a legal obligation when using a processor to formalise the working relationship in a contract which sets out:    

• the subject matter, nature and purpose of the processing; 
• the obligations and rights of the data controller; 
• duration of the processing; and 
• the types of personal data and categories of data subjects

In addition, the contract must set out specific obligations on the processor, including that they:

• comply with your instructions 
• are subject to a duty of confidentiality 
• keep personal data secure and notify you of any breach 
• maintain written records of the processing activities they carry out for you 
• only use a sub-processor with your consent 
• submit to audits and inspections and provide you with whatever information you need to ensure compliance with data protection requirements 
• delete or return all personal data to you as requested at the end of the contract

You can find more information on your legal obligations when using a data processor in our data protection guidance.  

The colour of the ballot paper is not prescribed, nor is the colour to be used for tendered ballot papers, although tendered ballot papers must be a different colour from the ordinary ballot papers.1

As PARO you should decide early on what colour the ballot papers will be in your police area and work closely with all of the LROs to agree the colour to be used. 

At combined polls, different-coloured ballot papers must be used for each poll.2 You should also consider consulting print suppliers about the colour to ensure that your choice does not give rise to supply or production difficulties.

In deciding on the ballot paper colour you should take into account accessibility issues relating to colour and contrast. See our Marking your mark good practice design guidance which contains advice on choosing colours. 

You should consult with LROs in the police area early in the planning process about the production of ballot papers to enable them to confirm their requirements and printing arrangements with their suppliers at an early stage in the process.

Although the final content of the ballot paper cannot be confirmed until nominations have closed, in addition to confirming the colour, you will need to make decisions about the following elements of the ballot paper at an early stage:

• ballot paper numbers
• unique identifying mark
• the ‘official mark’

You may use a different official mark for different purposes at the election.1 That means that you could choose one official mark for all ballot papers for the whole of the police area, or you could choose to have different official marks, e.g. for polling station ballot papers and ballot papers issued to postal voters.

In particular, you will need to consider how to ensure that no two ballot papers in the police area are duplicates. The unique identifying mark will need to be unique to each ballot paper across the police area. If you reach a decision that the unique identifying marks to be used across the police area are to be formed of a repeat of the ballot paper number with a prefix, you should consider developing unique prefixes for each voting area which would then give LROs flexibility as to how they number the ballot papers within their voting area.

You should consider how you are going to work with LROs to ensure that all absent voters across the police area receive a consistently high quality of service, irrespective of where they are registered. 

In particular you should consult with LROs about their plans for issuing postal votes in their voting area with a view to ensuring that the timing for the receipt of postal votes by electors is consistent across the police area and maximises the amount of time that voters will have to receive, complete and return their postal vote.

If there are combined polls in your area, the relevant RO will need to decide whether to do a combined or separate issue of postal votes, and you will need to liaise with the relevant officer to ensure their decision is reflected in your overall plans.

This section of the guidance covers explains the statutory actions that must take place to enable the election timetable to formally commence.

This includes:

• the publication of the notice of election 
• the publication of polling station notices

We have published a non-date specific timetable:

A date-specific timetable will be available on our website ahead of scheduled polls.

You must publish the notice of election by not later than 25 working days before polling day.1 You must also provide the LRO for each voting area that is wholly or partly within your police area with a copy of the notice for local publication.2

The notice of election must include the following:3

• the place and times at which nomination papers can be delivered, and at which nomination papers may be obtained 
• where you have decided to accept electronic payments, the arrangements for electronic payment of deposits
• the date of the poll if the election is contested
• the date by which applications for absent votes (including emergency proxies) and any cancellation or changes to existing absent voting arrangements must reach the ERO in order to be effective for the election

The notice should also include the date by which applications for registration and Voter Authority Certificates or Anonymous Elector’s Documents must reach the relevant ERO in order to be effective for the election. 

The address given for the delivery of nomination papers should be exact and include any room number. This will avoid any doubt should nominations be delivered close to the deadline. All reception staff at offices of the building and other connected buildings should be informed that they should not take receipt of nomination papers.

We have developed a template notice of election which you can use for the PCC election.
 

Where the poll at a PCC election is not combined, you must prepare and provide each Local Returning Officer (LRO) with notices for display in polling booths, and outside and inside polling stations.  

The notice entitled ‘How to vote at this election’ must be exhibited outside and inside each polling station.1 The notice containing the ‘Vote for ONLY ONE CANDIDATE by putting a cross [X] in the box next to your choice’ is required to be displayed in every polling booth.

You may also provide versions of these notices in alternative languages or formats as you think appropriate and, if the LRO agrees, these may also be exhibited inside and outside the polling station. You should liaise with local government ROs and LROs to identify what the alternative language and format requirements are across your police area.2

You should liaise with local government ROs and LROs (as appropriate) in your police area regarding what information on the PCC election (such as the voting system and the role of the PCC) should be given by polling station staff to electors. The provision of information in polling stations, whether given proactively or in response to questions from voters, should be consistent across the police area. You should therefore consider how best to ensure that the same information is given to all voters across the police area, wherever they are voting, and that the relevant Returning Officers and polling station staff have clear guidance about what information should or should not be given to voters.

As PARO you are responsible for the administration of a nomination process which supports candidates to stand for election and enables them to have confidence in the management of the election.  

The following guidance is designed to support you in the decisions you will need to take to manage the nomination process efficiently and effectively. It includes information on the requirements for nomination including candidate details, deposits and methods of delivery, guidance to support the processing and determining of nominations, and guidance on the processes to be followed after the close of nominations such as the publishing of official notices. It also includes information on the actions required following the death of a candidate.

Providing information on the nomination process to candidates and agents

There may be new or less experienced candidates, agents and political parties who are unfamiliar with the practices and processes of standing for election and who will need your support to be able to participate effectively. 

As part of your preparations for the polls, you will have put plans in place to ensure that you offer all potential candidates and agents a briefing session before or at the start of the nomination period, and that they are also issued with written guidance on the election process in good time to enable them to act on it. Details of what the briefings and written information should include, and links to template briefings, can be found in our guidance on providing information to political parties, candidates and agents.
 

You should prepare a relevant nomination pack for any person who expresses an interest in standing in the PCC election. Information for candidates and agents is available in our guidance.
 
We have produced two sets of nomination papers; one covering the election of a Police and Crime Commissioner and a separate set covering the election of a Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner. 

Each set includes all of the forms required for nomination that you can provide to candidates.

We have also produced a nominations checklist for PAROs which sets out what you will need to consider and specific things to look out for when determining a nomination.

The nomination pack should contain:

• a nomination form
• a home address form
• a consent to nomination form
• a form for the candidate (or someone on their behalf) to give notice of appointment of an election agent
• forms for the election agent to give notice of appointment of sub-agents
• forms for the candidate or election agent to give notice of appointment of polling agents, postal voting agents and counting agents
• a certificate of authorisation to allow a candidate to stand on behalf of a registered political party
• a form for a candidate standing on behalf of a registered political party to request the use of an emblem 
• details of how the deposit should be paid, including acceptable methods of payment
• written guidance for candidates and agents covering key aspects of the electoral process, including the qualifications and disqualifications for election, the nominations process, campaigning dos and don’ts, accessing electoral proceedings and what happens after the declaration of the result
• contact details for the local LROs
• a copy of the Code of conduct for campaigners in Great Britain which sets out what is, and is not, considered acceptable behaviour at polling stations, when encouraging electors to vote by post or proxy, and in the community. You may identify the need to develop and seek agreement on:
  • specific local provisions which supplement the terms of the Code in order to address identified local risks.
  • details of how to obtain a copy of the electoral register and the absent voters’ lists for each voting area in the police area, and forms to make such requests with information on where to send these requests to. You should highlight that the information contained in the electoral register and absent voting lists may only be used in accordance with the Representation of the People Regulations 2001 and in accordance with data protection legislation.
  • information on the spending limit for candidates at the election and guidance for candidates and agents on spending and donations 
  • a form for a candidate to withdraw from the contest if they decide to do so after they have been validly nominated
  • information on local arrangements 
  • any other relevant information

A candidate is deemed to be validly nominated only if you have received the following forms and the deposit of £5,000 by the close of nominations (4pm on the nineteenth working day before poll).1

• the nomination form2   
• a home address form
• a consent to nomination 

Political party candidates

If a candidate wishes to stand on behalf of a registered political party then, in addition to the above they must also submit a certificate of authorisation, authorising the use of the party name on the ballot paper (as prescribed), and may also include a written request to use one of the party’s registered emblems if they choose. 

The party name or description authorised by the certificate must match the party name or description given on the nomination form or the whole nomination will be invalid.3   

The party must be registered on the Commission’s register of political parties at http://search.electoralcommission.org.uk and be listed as allowed to field candidates in England (if the candidate is standing in a police area in England) or Wales (if the candidate is standing in a police area in Wales).

Production of nomination papers

Nomination forms can only be produced in English or, in Wales, in English and/or Welsh, and not in any alternative languages or formats.4 However, you are required by law to prepare nomination forms for signature if someone requests.5 This means providing all of the documents required for nomination and completing them with all of the information given to you so that only the required signatures need to be added.

We have produced two sets of nomination papers ; one covering the election of a Police and Crime Commissioner and a separate set covering the election of a Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner. 

Each set includes all of the forms required for nomination that you can provide to candidates.

Candidates do not have to use the nomination form that you have produced, as long as their nomination form is as prescribed.

We have also produced a nominations checklist for PAROs which sets out what you will need to consider and specific things to look out for when determining a nomination.
 

The candidate’s full names must be listed on the nomination form, with their surname given first followed by all their other names in full.1  

Prefixes and suffixes

The nomination form does not prescribe a space for prefixes or suffixes. 

Candidates should be advised not to include prefixes or suffixes such as Mr, Mrs, Dr or Cllr, or suffixes such as OBE or MBA in the field of the nomination form asking for their full name. If a prefix or suffix is included as part of the actual name the nomination form would not be invalid as a result, but the prefix or suffix should not be transferred to the statement of persons nominated.

If a candidate has submitted a nomination form with a prefix or suffix as part of their actual name, you should inform the candidate and their agent that it will not appear on the statement of persons nominated, the notice of poll or the ballot paper, but that their nomination as a candidate has not been affected. 

The only exception to this is where a prefix or suffix has been included as part of a commonly used name and that is how the candidate claims to be commonly known.

Where a candidate commonly uses a different name from their actual name, or commonly uses their names in a different way to those stated on the nomination paper, they can ask for their commonly used name(s) to be used instead of their actual name.1  

A candidate can request to use a commonly used forename, surname or both. They may also use initials as part of their commonly used name if they are commonly known by them.

For example, they may be known by their abbreviated name ‘Andy’, rather than their full first name ‘Andrew’. In that case, they can write ‘Andy’ into the commonly used forename box on the nomination form if they would rather that name appear on the ballot paper.

A candidate with a hyphenated surname may choose to use one part of their surname if this is how they are commonly known. For example, in the case of Andrew Smith-Roberts, he could use Andrew Roberts or Andrew Smith (if either was the name by which he is commonly known).

However, if a candidate has a title, they can use this as their full name. For example, if the candidate’s actual name is Joseph Smith, but their hereditary title is Joseph Avon, they can use the name Joseph Avon as their full name.

This table sets out a non-exhaustive list of potential variations:

Decisions on Commonly Used Names

It is not for you to decide whether the commonly used name is a ‘name’ that is commonly used or whether it meets the legal requirement to be different from any other name they may have. The law requires you to take whatever has been entered in the commonly used name box at face value and to accept it as the candidate’s commonly used name.

The only grounds you have in law for rejecting a commonly used name is that you consider that:2

• its use may be likely to mislead or confuse electors, or
• it is obscene or offensive 

It is the candidate’s responsibility to ensure that they have completed their nomination in accordance with the law and to be satisfied that the given commonly used name is a name that they genuinely commonly use. 

In the course of providing informal advice, you may wish to draw the candidate’s attention to our guidance for candidates and agents  on commonly used names.

The table below contains a number of worked examples of various combinations of commonly used names and how this would affect the appearance of the candidate’s name on the statement of persons nominated, the notice of poll and the ballot paper.

If either the commonly used forenames or commonly used surname box is left blank, then the candidate’s actual forenames or surname, depending on which commonly used name box has been left blank, will go on the statement of persons nominated, the notice of poll and on the ballot paper.

You should advise the candidate that the use of commonly used names applies only to the statement of persons nominated, the notice of poll and the ballot paper. The candidate’s actual name should appear on any documents that are required to show the candidate’s name, such as the imprint and candidate’s spending returns.  

If you refuse the use of a commonly used name, the validity of the nomination form remains unaffected. Instead, the effect is that the candidate's full name will appear on the statement of persons nominated, the notice of poll and the ballot paper. This should be made clear to candidates and agents and you must write to the candidate setting out the reasons for refusing to allow the use of the commonly used name.1  

Nomination forms must include an indication of support for the candidate from 100 electors registered on the local government electoral register for a voting area within the police area.1 These are known as subscribers – the first two are the proposer and seconder, while 98 other electors are the assenters to the nomination. There is nothing preventing a candidate from subscribing their own nomination provided they are registered in the police area. 

The proposer, seconder and other subscribers may be registered anywhere in the police area and there is no limit to the numbers of subscribers from any one voting area, e.g. they may all be registered in one voting area or may be registered in different voting areas across the police area. 

Each subscriber is required by law to sign the nomination paper in the appropriate place and their electoral number must be included in the spaces provided alongside their signature, along with the polling district’s identifying letters.2   

Once a nomination form has been formally submitted, even if it is later deemed invalid, the signatures of the subscribers will still count towards the one form that the subscriber may subscribe.

If, after you have determined a nomination, an elector is later removed from the register or dies before the election (or even before the nomination is delivered) their signature remains valid and the nomination is not affected.

A person who is shown on the register as being under 18 years old at the time of nomination can only subscribe a nomination form if they will be 18 years old on or before polling day.3  

Only the required number of signatures for your police area on any nomination form can be considered. If more subscribers are included than the number required to stand for election in your police area, any subsequent names must not be considered at all. If one of the first of the required number of subscribers is invalid, irrespective of whether more subscribers have been added to the nomination form, the nomination must be held invalid.4

Signatures on nomination forms, once given, cannot be withdrawn by subscribers. If a subscriber contacts you to say that they wish to withdraw their subscription, you should inform them that this is not permitted by law and that the subscription remains valid. You must reject a nomination if the nomination form is not subscribed as required. 

Checking subscribers are on the register

Subscribers must appear on the local government register for a voting area within the police area that is in force on the last day for publication of notice of election. It is essential that the correct version of the register is used for checking that the subscribers are valid. 

You will need to liaise with the local ROs/EROs across the police area to ensure that you base your determination of the validity of subscribers on the relevant register update. 

Any nomination forms delivered subsequently bearing that elector’s signature as a subscriber must be determined as invalid, even where the later nomination form is for the same candidate as the earlier form, or if the earlier nomination form is for a candidate who has subsequently withdrawn.5  

Our guidance for PAROs on working with Electoral Registration Officers provides more information on planning for the checking of subscribers. 

As you must accept the nomination form at face value, you must accept that the signature made on the nomination form is that of the person listed on the register under the relevant elector number, even if the signature suggests another name. You may draw the attention of the person delivering the paper to the issue if you are concerned, but you must take the elector number and the signature at face value.6 If after having raised the issue you still have any concerns, you should raise these with your SPOC.

Crossed out subscribers’ names

Occasionally a mistake is made with the subscribers on a nomination form, and one or more of the names may be crossed out on the form. If the signature and elector number for a subscriber are clearly crossed out, you should ignore it and treat it as if that row did not appear at all. If asked, you should advise that any crossings out should be clear and, ideally, initialled. 

You should not cross out any entry. If the entry that has been crossed out was that of a proposer or seconder, then the new proposer or seconder must be indicated. Where an entry has been crossed out, the first signatures from the required number of subscribers for your police area excluding that entry must still be valid for the nomination to be valid. 

Candidates are also required to complete a home address form, which must be delivered by hand by one of those people who can deliver the nomination form and by the close of nominations. The form is not prescribed but the information that needs to be provided is set out in law.1  

On the home address form the candidate must state their full name and home address. 

The candidate’s home address: 

• must be completed in full 
• must not contain abbreviations 
• must be the candidate’s current home address 
• must not be a business address (unless the candidate runs a business from their home) 

If any detail of the home address is wrong or omitted, the nomination is not automatically invalid if the description of the place is such as to be commonly understood.

We have produced a home address form as part of our sets of nomination papers that you can use to provide to candidates and agents for use at the election of a Police and Crime Commissioner or a Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner. 

Candidates who don’t want their home address to be published

A candidate may choose for their home address not to be published on the statement of persons nominated or the ballot paper. 

In this case the home address form must contain:

• the full name and 
• full home address
• a signed statement stating that they require their home address not to be made public and
• confirming that they are registered in the register of electors for an electoral area in respect of an address within the police area

Candidates must also formally consent to their nomination and their consent must be delivered by the deadline for delivery of nomination papers, which is by 4pm on the nineteenth working day before the poll. The consent to nomination form is prescribed in the election rules and the candidate must use this form or a form to like effect.1  It must be submitted by hand and cannot be submitted by post, fax, email or other electronic means. 

The form must include:

• the candidate’s date of birth 
• a statement that they are aware of the provisions of the Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act 2011 and that to the best of their knowledge and belief they are not disqualified from election as a Police and Crime Commissioner or as a Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner
• a statement that they meet all the qualifications for standing 

It is for the candidate to ensure that they are not disqualified from standing. Neither you or the Commission are able to confirm whether or not a candidate is disqualified. 

Candidates are not allowed to sign their consent form earlier than 31 calendar days before the deadline for submitting their nomination papers.

The consent must also be witnessed by another person. The witness must provide their name and address on the consent form. 

There are no restrictions on who can be a witness to the consent to nomination.

You should remind any person delivering the nomination papers that it is a criminal offence to provide a false statement on nomination papers.1 If the nomination form includes a commonly used name, you should highlight that the offence also applies if a candidate has given a commonly used name that they do not actually commonly use.2 You may warn candidates that the penalty for a false statement is an unlimited fine and/or imprisonment of up to a year.3

 
You should not give advice on questions of candidates’ eligibility or disqualification but should direct them to our guidance for candidates and agents at Police and Crime Commissioner elections in the first instance. You should advise them to seek their own legal advice should they have any further concerns.
 

Political parties can register up to 12 descriptions and the Welsh translations of those descriptions. 

You must check that the party name or description as given on the nomination form is registered on the Commission’s register of political parties and matches it exactly. If it does not, you must reject that nomination. 

To be able to use a party’s identifiers (i.e.name, description and emblem) the party must be registered on the Commission’s register of political parties and be listed as allowed to field candidates in England (if the candidate is standing in a police area in England) or Wales (if the candidate is standing in a police area in Wales).1

Even if a registered party is well known, it is vital to check the register of political parties for the exact details of the party as registered with the Commission.

In case of future challenges, and to maintain a clear audit trail, you should print a copy of the relevant part of the Commission’s register of political parties showing the descriptions and party name at the time of your determination.

What descriptions may be used?

The legislation is precise about the use of descriptions. A candidate may only use one of the following descriptions:2
•    in England, the word 'Independent'
•    in Wales, the word ‘Independent’ and /or ‘Annibynnol’ 
•    the registered party name of a registered political party 
•    one of the descriptions the party has registered with the Commission

Candidates in Wales may use either the English version, Welsh version or both versions of either the party name or description, as long as they are registered with the Commission.
 

Certificate of authorisation

If a candidate wishes to use a party name or description, this must be authorised by the party’s Nominating Officer (or a person authorised to act on their behalf).  

The candidate must submit a certificate of authorisation, signed by or on behalf of the party’s Nominating Officer, by the deadline for the delivery of nomination papers.3

You can check who the Nominating Officer for a particular party is by referring to the Commission’s register of political parties . However, as long as the person who has issued the certificate claims that they have been authorised to do so by the registered Nominating Officer, the certificate should be taken at face value. 

Some candidates provide a document showing the delegation of powers to authorise the use of a party name or description to someone else (sometimes known as the ‘Local Nominating Officer certificate’ or ‘Deputy Nominating Officer certificate’).

There is no need for this document to be submitted as it is not part of the nomination paper and is therefore not required. Therefore, if it is supplied, it can be a copy.

A Nominating Officer may stand as a candidate. If this happens, the candidate, as Nominating Officer, may authorise their own description. A person authorised by the Nominating Officer to issue a certificate of authorisation may also be a candidate and issue a certificate for their own nomination.
 

The use of joint descriptions

Candidates standing on behalf of more than one registered party may use a joint description which is registered with the Commission. Such candidates must submit a certificate of authorisation issued by each of the parties’ Nominating Officers (or persons authorised to act on their behalf) by the deadline for the delivery of nomination papers. 

You can find joint descriptions listed on the register of political parties. To view them go to the registration page for the relevant parties within the descriptions section, and in each case the description will be followed by the words ‘(Joint Description with the xx party)’. 

An example would be ‘The Square and Circle Party Candidate (Joint Description with the Circle Party)’, which would be listed on the Square Party page.
Please note that the words in brackets are for explanatory purposes only and do not form part of the description. 

Political parties can also register up to 3 emblems.

A candidate of a registered party can choose to have a registered emblem of the party they are representing displayed on the ballot paper.

The candidate (or someone of their behalf), not the election agent or the Nominating Officer (unless they are acting on behalf of the candidate) must make the request in writing. This request must be received by the deadline for delivery of nominations.

To qualify, a candidate must have been authorised to use a party name or description other than ‘Independent’ and/or ‘Annibynnol' (in Wales).1  

A candidate may also choose to use an emblem of their party without choosing to use an authorised description. They would need to provide the certificate of authorisation as well as the emblem request form but may choose not to include an authorised description on the nomination paper. 

If the party has more than one registered emblem, the candidate should specify which one they want to use. If the candidate does not specify one, or the registered party changes or removes the emblem from the register of political parties after the nomination papers have been submitted but before the close of nominations, you should try to contact the candidate and ask them to select one. You should also tell them that if they do not select a particular emblem before the close of nominations, you will not be able to print an emblem against their name on the ballot paper. 

The candidate may provide a high-resolution copy of the emblem for use in the printing of ballot papers, or may request that you download the emblem from the Commission’s website. You must ensure that whatever copy is used is in the same form as the registered emblem. 

The maximum size of an emblem on the ballot paper is set by the directions for printing. When adding a party emblem to a ballot paper, the shape of the emblem should not be altered. You must ensure that the emblem is in the same form as the registered emblem – for example, do not stretch emblems into square shapes if they are not registered as square images on our website, as this would have the effect of altering their appearance.

Candidates standing on behalf of more than one registered party who use a joint description may choose to use a registered emblem of one of the parties that have authorised the use of the description. There is no provision for joint emblems to be registered with the Commission.

A Zip file of emblem images will be available on our website. However, while the Zip file is a tool that can be used by your printer to prepare ballot papers, it is the information on the Commission’s register of political parties that should be used for confirming which emblem to print on the ballot papers.

In order to be validly nominated, a candidate or someone acting on the candidate’s behalf must deposit the sum of £5,000 with you. This sum must be paid by the close of nominations.1  

You must accept deposits made using:2

• Legal tender (cash in British pounds only)
• A UK banker’s draft

You may refuse to accept a banker’s draft if you do not know whether the drawer carries on business as a banker in the United Kingdom.

You can choose to accept funds by means of:

• a building society cheque
• debit or credit card
• the electronic transfer of funds

You should accept building society cheques if they carry out business in the United Kingdom. You should also accept banker’s payments which are orders issued by a bank, guaranteeing payment to the recipient. If you decide to accept any of these methods you should list them on the notice of election and make any requirements you have clear in the nomination pack.  

If the deposit is given to you by someone acting on behalf of the candidate, the person delivering the deposit must give you their name and address, unless they have already provided this information as part of their notification of appointment as an election agent.3

Where a candidate is not shown as standing nominated in the statement of persons nominated, the deposit must be returned as soon as practicable after the publication of the statement of persons nominated to the person who made the deposit or their personal representative.4

For more information on the return of deposits see our guidance for PAROs on processes to be undertaken after the election. 

If there is a fee attached to the form of payment, you can pass this on to the candidate. If so, you should make this clear on the notice of election and the nomination pack. 

This guidance explains the requirements for the delivery of nomination papers. It sets out what you should do to prepare for and undertake informal checking of papers before they are formally delivered and who can deliver nomination papers to you for submission.  

It also explains what papers must be submitted and how they should be completed in order for you to be able to determine them, along with the method of submission and who is entitled to deliver and attend the delivery of nomination papers. 

The purpose of an informal check is to check that a nomination paper appears to be complete in respect of all the legal requirements. When conducting an informal check you should make it clear that the nomination papers are being looked at informally only. 

This process allows you to highlight any errors which would invalidate the paper or which may give reason for a challenge following the election, allowing the opportunity for these to be corrected before being formally submitted. 

As part of your informal checks you may wish to highlight to candidates the updated rules regarding commonly used names.

Once informal checks are complete, the papers will either be handed back, or if there are no amendments to be made, they may be formally submitted.  

The person delivering the nomination paper may choose not to wait for an informal check or may choose not to make any changes following advice given at the informal checking stage. If that is the case the paper should be considered as formally submitted and you should accept it at face value. 

All candidates and agents should be given an equal opportunity to access an informal check.

You should consider how you are going to manage this process, for example by putting in place an appointment system.

The deadline for nominations is 4pm on the nineteenth working day before poll. 

This deadline cannot be moved or extended for any reason.1

Nomination papers can be delivered to you between the hours of 10am and 4pm on any working day after the publication of the notice of election.2  

A nomination paper is considered delivered when it is delivered by hand at the place specified in the notice of election. 

For party candidates wishing to use a description and/or an emblem, you must also receive a certificate of authorisation or emblem request, as applicable, during the time specified for the delivery of nomination papers.

No appointment is required to deliver nomination papers but you could offer and encourage appointments as a way to manage the potential volume of nominations that you will receive during the period for nominations. 

The candidate is responsible for making sure that their nomination papers are delivered in the correct way and by the required deadline. If a completed set of nomination papers and the deposit have not been delivered by that time, the nomination is treated as not having been made which means that you cannot rule the nomination valid or invalid.3

Nomination papers must be delivered to the location specified by you on the notice of election. The location you choose must be in the police area.1

The address given for the delivery of nomination papers should be exact, and include any room name or number. This will avoid any doubt should nominations be delivered close to the deadline.

You should:

• ensure that only you or your staff take delivery of nomination papers at the specified location
• clearly signpost the location from the building entrance 
• ensure the route is fully accessible or provide an appropriately signposted alternative
• give details to other local authority staff, such as reception staff, of what to do if a person tries to deliver a nomination paper to them and make it clear that they:
  • should not handle nomination papers
  • should not offer to deliver them
  • should instead direct the person delivering the forms to you

You or an appointed deputy must be present throughout the period for nominations and the period for objections.2

Only a limited number of people may deliver the nomination form and home address form. The nomination form and home address form may only be delivered to you by:1

• the candidate
• the proposer or seconder as shown on the nomination form
• the candidate’s election agent, provided you have received notice of their appointment. The notice of appointment of election agent may be delivered at the same time as the nomination form and home address form.

There is no provision for sub-agents to be able to deliver nomination and home address forms.

There are no restrictions on who can deliver the consent to nomination, certificate of authorisation and emblem request form.

After a candidate has delivered their nomination papers and deposit and they stand validly nominated, they are entitled to attend the delivery of other candidates’ nomination papers and make objections to the validity of a nomination form or home address form. In addition to the candidate, the following persons will also be able to attend and make objections:

• their election agent
• their proposer or seconder, as stated on the nomination form

If a candidate is their own election agent, they can appoint one other person to attend the delivery of nomination papers and make objections to the validity of a nomination form or home address form. If a candidate has submitted more than one nomination form, only the proposer and seconder from the nomination form they have selected will be entitled to attend. If none has been selected, it will be the proposer and seconder of the first submitted
nomination form who will have that entitlement.

Nomination papers cannot be inspected by anybody else at any time. 

Electoral Commission representatives and one other person chosen by a validly nominated candidate can also be present at the delivery of nomination papers, but they are not allowed to inspect or make any objections.

You should make it clear to persons inspecting a home address form which asks for the candidate’s home address not to be published that the information on the form should only be used by the person inspecting to: 

• object to the nomination 
• lodge an election petition 
• make a complaint to the police that a person has made a false statement 

and that any other use may be in breach of data protection legislation and so could make a person using the information for any other purpose liable to criminal prosecution. 

You must keep the nomination papers securely and allow inspection of the nomination and home address forms by the persons permitted to inspect these until the deadline for making objections to the nomination papers.

You must not permit any other inspection unless the purpose is authorised by law.2 For example, the police have the power to inspect certain documents under specific circumstances. In these cases, the requestor should inform you of the relevant legislative provision which authorises inspection, so that you can be satisfied that, in allowing access, you are complying with the access restrictions. 

Once the deadline for making objections has passed, you should store the nomination papers securely for one year after the election, except for the home address form, which must be destroyed on the next working day following a period of 21 calendar days after the declaration of the result.  

However, the home address form must not be destroyed if there is a petition or other legal proceedings relating to the election, in which case you must wait until the next working day after the conclusion of such proceedings before destroying the form.3
 

The original version of each completed document must be submitted.

The nomination form, home address form and consent to nomination must be delivered by hand and cannot be submitted by post, fax, email or other electronic means. Where a document is required to be delivered by hand, this can include delivery by a courier.

Certificates of authorisation and emblem request forms may be delivered by hand or by post, but cannot be submitted by fax, email or other electronic means. This is because a document that is printed out is not an original document – it would be a copy document. 

For a document to become a certificate (as required for a Certificate of Authorisation) it requires a method of authentication to make it a certificate. In most cases, the authentication takes the form of a signature to attest the truth of the facts stated. A seal could also be used. 

Whatever method of authentication is used, the document you receive must be the original document and not a copy document.1

You should take steps to communicate the requirements relating to delivery of nomination papers to all prospective candidates and agents, and ensure that these requirements are highlighted in any briefings or guidance you produce.

Once a nomination paper has been formally delivered, no changes can be subsequently made to it (subject to your power to correct minor errors). At the point of formal submission you should therefore endorse the paper with the date and time of delivery, so that you have a record of when each paper was formally submitted. If a candidate later decides that they want to make changes, for example to the description, they should withdraw their candidature and then submit new nomination papers within the statutory timeframe. There is no provision to allow a subscriber to withdraw their signature from a nomination paper once it has been delivered.
 

Nomination forms, home address forms and consent to nomination forms cannot be delivered by post. 

Only the certificate of authorisation and emblem request can be received by post. 

Any certificates of authorisation and emblem requests received by post should be stored securely until required and collated with corresponding nomination papers delivered by hand as appropriate. 

You should have processes in place to monitor your incoming mail to ensure it does not contain nomination papers that must be delivered by hand. 

If you receive a nomination paper, home address form or consent to nomination form by post, you should try to contact the candidate and explain:

• that their nomination form, home address form and consent to nomination cannot be accepted by post
• that they (or someone on their behalf) needs to hand deliver these in accordance with the rules
• that it is their responsibility to ensure that this is done by the deadline
• that they do not need to produce new nomination papers or obtain new subscribers

You should keep any nomination papers you receive by post so they can be collected and then delivered to you by hand. You and your staff are not permitted to deliver the forms for the candidate.

The candidate is deemed not to have been nominated if:

• you receive a nomination form, home address form or consent to nomination by post.1
• you have not received all of the required nomination forms by the deadline for delivery of nomination papers 

You cannot determine forms which have not been delivered or take any decision as to whether the papers are valid.2  
 

There is no limit to the number of nomination forms that may be delivered for the same candidate. 

If a candidate is validly nominated by more than one form:

• the candidate should choose one of the valid nomination forms – to be known as the 'selected' nomination form 
• details on this selected form should be added to the statement of persons nominated and the ballot paper

If the candidate cannot or does not do this, then you must choose which one of the forms will be used.1

If more than one nomination form is delivered and one of the nomination forms is invalid:

• that paper is excluded from the forms that can be chosen by the candidate or yourself. 
• as long as at least one nomination form is valid, the candidate can be validly nominated

Signatures from subscribers on any delivered nomination form will count towards the maximum number they may subscribe.2 For more information see our PARO guidance on subscriber requirements . 
 

Determining the nomination form and home address form

A candidate who delivers completed nomination papers and pays the deposit by the required deadline will be deemed nominated unless:

• you decide that the nomination form is invalid or that the home address form has not been completed correctly 
• or the candidate dies or withdraws.1

You must determine the validity of a nomination form and the home address form as soon as is practicable after formal delivery. The sooner you carry out the formal determination, the greater the chance of those candidates who have made a mistake and whose nomination has been rejected being able to submit new papers before the close of nominations.

The Elections Act 2022 has updated the grounds on which you can determine a nomination invalid. For more information see our guidance on determining a nomination to be invalid.

We have produced a checklist to assist you with processing nomination forms.
 

Accepting nominations at face value

You must not:

• undertake any investigation or research into any candidate. Your duty does not go beyond seeing that a nomination form and home address form is correct on face value.2

You should not:

• investigate whether a name given on a nomination form is genuine

You should:

• disregard any personal knowledge you may already have of the candidate 
• determine nominations on the basis of the form itself
   

Grounds for determining a nomination form invalid

By law, the only grounds that you have for determining that a nomination form is invalid are:1

• that the particulars of the candidate or the persons subscribing the nomination form are not as required by law, or
• that the form is not subscribed as required
• that the person is subject to a disqualification order under section 30 of the Elections Act 2022

Particulars of the candidate

The particulars of the candidate include the description given on the nomination paper, therefore you must hold the nomination invalid if: 

• the party does not appear on the Commission’s register of political parties as a party that can contest elections in England (if they are standing for election in a police area in England) or Wales (if they are standing for election in a police area in Wales), or
• the party name or description used on the nomination form does not exactly match the party name or description as registered with the Commission, or
• the use of the party name or description has not been authorised by a certificate of authorisation signed by or on behalf of the party’s Nominating Officer; or
• the description is not registered by the Commission

There is case law that also provides that candidates who give descriptions that are obscene, racist or an incitement to crime should be considered to have provided particulars that are “not as required by law”. This is because they contravene the law and/or will inevitably involve the PARO in a breach of the law. 

If the nomination form does not comply with the description rules above, you must give a decision to this effect as soon as practicable after the delivery of the nomination form and, in any event, no later than 24 hours after the deadline for delivery of nomination papers.2  

We have produced a nominations checklist for PAROs which sets out what you will need to consider and specific things to look our for when determining a nomination. 
 

Subscribers

Our guidance on subscriber requirements for PAROs contains detailed information on subscribers. 

If a nomination form is not subscribed as required it must be deemed invalid.3  

Failure to provide a deposit

If you have not received the required £5,000 deposit by the deadline for the submission of nomination papers, the candidate has not been validly nominated. There is then no need to make a formal determination, and their name should not appear on the statement of persons nominated.4  

Return of deposit due to nomination not being valid

You must return the deposit of any candidate whose nomination you have rejected. The deposit must be returned to the person who made it and as soon as practicable after the statement of persons nominated has been published.5 For more information on returning deposits to validly nominated candidates after an election see our guidance for PAROs on Post election activity.

Grounds for determining a home address form invalid

You must determine that the home address form does not comply with the legal requirements if:6

• it does not state the candidate’s full name,
• it does not state the candidate’s home address in full, or
• it includes a statement that the candidate’s home address is not to be made public but there is no signature confirming the statement and that the candidate is registered in the register of electors for an electoral area in respect of an address within the police area

Sham nominations

You may come across a situation where the candidate's nomination is clearly a sham - for example, if a candidate has given an obviously fictitious name or address such as 'Mickey Mouse of Disney Land'. In such a case the nomination paper must be held to be invalid on the grounds that the candidate’s particulars are not as required by law.7

When considering the name, the primary consideration should be whether the “name” that has been provided on the nomination form appears to be “obviously fictitious” on the face of the paper.

If the “name” does not appear to be a genuine name and instead appears to be a statement or slogan, for example, you may consider that it is “obviously fictitious”.

Any conclusion would be supported by considering the wider context. For example, does the name appear to be a political slogan made in response to topical political events, rather than the genuine name of a real person?

A court would likely in those circumstances conclude that such names are “obviously fictitious” and that the nomination form should be rejected.

Once you have made a decision that a nomination form is valid, that decision cannot be challenged during the election, although it may be challenged after the election by way of an election petition.1

If you have made a formal determination but, as a result of an objection, later decide that the nomination form should in fact have been determined as invalid, you can make a further determination to this effect. 

If a nomination form is determined to be invalid you must:2

• state that fact on the nomination form 
• write on it the reasons for rejection 
• sign the form

A candidate can withdraw their candidature if they do so before the deadline.1 A withdrawal notice is not prescribed but we do provide a template withdrawal notice for candidates to use. 

A notice of withdrawal must be:

• signed by the candidate
• attested by one witness
• delivered by hand to the place for the delivery of nomination papers
• delivered by 4pm on the nineteenth working day before the poll

There are no restrictions on who can deliver the notice of withdrawal. 

If the candidate is not in the UK, a withdrawal will be effective if it is:2  

• signed by the proposer
• accompanied by a written declaration that the candidate is abroad (also signed by the proposer) 
• delivered to you by 4pm on the nineteenth working day before the poll (i.e. by the deadline for withdrawals). 

The details of any candidates who by the close of withdrawals remain nominated must be printed on the ballot papers. If a candidate has not withdrawn by the deadline, their details must go forward to the ballot paper.3  

Return of deposit due to withdrawal

You must return the deposit of any candidate who has withdrawn their candidature. The deposit must be returned to the person who made it and as soon as practicable after the statement of persons nominated has been published.4 For more information on returning deposits to validly nominated candidates after an election see our guidance for PAROs on post election activity.
 

Subject to your power to correct minor errors no changes can be made to a nomination paper once it has been formally delivered. 

Correction of minor errors

The information in this section explains how to deal with minor errors and you must have regard to this.1  

You can, by law, correct minor errors made on nomination or home address forms at any time before you publish the statement of persons nominated.2  

You should attempt to contact the candidate or agent before making any minor error amendment.3

This table sets out some of the minor errors which can be corrected and guidance about exercising your power to correct minor errors. You should contact us for advice when considering correcting minor errors. 
 

Certain people may object to the validity of a nomination form or a home address form. More information on who can object to nominations can be found in our guidance for PAROs on attendance at nominations. 

Objections can be made on the last day for the receipt of nomination which is the nineteenth working day before the poll.

Timetable for objections 

The time within which an objection can be made depends on when the nomination form and home address form are delivered.1

You should consider any objection that you receive during the allowed time for objections to be made.

You are only entitled to hold a nomination paper and home address form invalid on the following grounds: 

• the particulars of the candidate or the subscribers are not as required by law
• the form is not subscribed as required
• that the person is subject to a disqualification order under section 30 of the Elections Act 2022

You should not undertake any investigation or hear any representations in support of or challenging any fact or statement given on the nomination form or home address form.

You should limit the objection process to the nomination form and the home address form. 

Where you decide that, as a result of an objection, a nomination you have already determined should have been ruled invalid, you must:

• show on the statement of persons nominated that the candidate is no longer validly nominated 
• reason why they no longer stand nominated. 

You should inform the candidate as appropriate.1   

For more information see our guidance for PAROs on Determining a nomination is invalid. 

After the close of nominations you must publish a statement of persons nominated and a notice of poll.1   

You can find more information on the content of these notices in our guidance for PAROs on Statement of Persons Nominated and the Notice of poll.

As you will now know which candidates are standing in your area, it is important to revisit your project plan and risk register. You should check whether they are still suitable or if any amendments are needed to ensure that processes run smoothly, safely and efficiently.

Factors to consider could include the number of candidates standing, the level of experience that the candidates and the political parties represented have of standing for election and their knowledge of electoral processes, as well as any local risks or issues that could require specific management by Local Returning Officers (LROs) at polling stations or the count.

Where you have made arrangements to do so, you should forward the email and phone contact details of candidates standing in the election to the FEOA. You should ensure that candidates are aware of how their information will be used and provide them with the opportunity to opt out if necessary. For more information, see our guidance for LROs on working with your local police force.

Nomination in more than one area

A candidate may not stand for election in more than one PCC election held on the same date. A candidate who is validly nominated for more than one police area must withdraw from being a candidate in all areas except one, before the deadline for withdrawals. If they do not, they will be deemed to have withdrawn from being a candidate in all police areas.2

Uncontested elections

The election is uncontested if either:

• only one valid nomination is received 
• all valid nominations are properly withdrawn by the deadline except one

If the election is uncontested, you must, as soon as practicable, declare the remaining validly nominated candidate elected.    

You must give public notice of the name and description (if any) of the elected candidate.  

You must send a copy of the notice to the Minister and to each LRO in the police area, and you should take steps to ensure that each LRO publishes the notice in their voting area.3

You are required to publish a statement of persons nominated for the police area by no later than 4pm on the eighteenth working day before the poll.1

Contents of the statement of persons nominated

The statement of persons nominated must include, for all candidates who are validly nominated:

• their name
• their address (or, if they have requested not to have their home address made public, the words Address in the [insert name of police area] Police Area
• their description (if any)

It must also include those who no longer stand nominated and the reason why (i.e. those who have withdrawn or whose nomination you have rejected).2

Your privacy notice should make clear that you are required under electoral legislation to publish a candidate’s name and address information in the statement of persons nominated. You can find more information in our data protection guidance.

Ordering of names on the statement of persons nominated

The names of the candidates on the statement must be listed in alphabetical order of their surname; this is also how they will appear on the ballot paper.3

Where there are two or more candidates with the same surname, the alphabetical order of the other names will decide which candidate is listed first.

If a person has requested the use of a commonly used name on their nomination form, the commonly used name must be shown on the statement instead of the actual name.

Where a candidate has requested the use of a commonly used surname, the candidate’s alphabetical position on the statement of persons nominated (and on the ballot paper) must be made by reference to their commonly used surname.4

If, however, you have rejected the use of any commonly used name as you think it is likely to mislead or confuse electors, or is obscene or offensive, the actual name must be published on the statement of persons nominated instead of the commonly used name.5

Considerations where a candidate has asked for their home address not to be published

If than one validly nominated candidate has asked for their home address not to be published, you must consider if two or more of them have the same or so similar a name that they are likely to cause confusion. 

If you consider that this is the case, you may add such details from their home address or nomination form to the statement of persons nominated as you consider appropriate to reduce the likelihood of confusion.6  

You must consult the candidate(s) affected, if it is practicable to do so, before you make a decision on which details should be included on the statement of persons nominated. 

You must then give notice in writing to the affected candidate(s) informing them of the additional information that will be published.7

Publication

You must provide each LRO with a copy of the statement as soon as it is published for local publication.8

You must also send a copy of the statement to the Electoral Commission. We will confirm through a Bulletin where the statement is to be sent.9

You should have robust proof checking processes in place to ensure that there are no errors on the statement of persons nominated. You can find more information about proof checking in our quality assurance guidance.

If the election is contested you must publish a notice of poll for the police area by no later than the sixth working day before poll.1

The notice of poll must state:2

• the date and hours of the poll
• the particulars of the candidates remaining validly nominated, and the order of the names must be the same as in the statement of persons nominated

Your privacy notice should make clear that you are required under electoral legislation to publish a candidate’s name and address information, in the notice of poll. You can find more information in our guidance on data protection. 

It is not a legal requirement for the notice of poll to be published locally by LROs. However, you should still take steps to ensure that a copy is published in each voting area, including by ensuring that LROs either provide a link from their website to the notice you have published, or provide a copy directly on their website so that electors in all voting areas can easily access it. 

You should also provide a copy to all candidates and agents as soon as practicable after its publication.
 

LROs at a standalone PCC election, and local government ROs taking on combined functions where polls are combined, must publish a notice of the situation of polling stations for their voting area by no later than the last time for publication of the notice of poll. You should therefore let LROs know when you are planning to publish the notice of poll. 

LROs must give a copy of this notice to all election agents as soon as practicable after giving the notice and should also provide a copy to candidates and to you. The notice should also be made available to accredited observers on request.1

As part of your consideration about how best to provide information to candidates and agents in a coordinated and consistent manner, you should liaise with the LROs and local government ROs (as appropriate) to decide how best they can discharge their duty to provide copies of the notice of situation of polling stations to candidates and agents, enabling them to easily access this information for the whole of the police area. 

As part of your discussions, you should consider whether the notices will be collated and disseminated centrally by you.
 

In the event of the death of a candidate during the election period, the procedure to be followed at a PCC election depends on the time when you receive proof of the death of the candidate. It is the time when you receive proof of the candidate’s death that is the relevant factor, not the actual time of death.1  

Proof of death received before polls open

If proof of the death of a validly nominated candidate at a contested election is received before the opening of the poll, you must countermand the notice of poll and the poll does not take place. A new election must be held.

Proof of death received after polls have opened and before the declaration of result

If proof of the death of a validly nominated candidate at a contested election is received after the opening of the poll but before the declaration of result, you must direct that poll is abandoned. A new election must be held. 

In this instance, because the poll will have started, the documentation (i.e. issued and un-issued ballot papers, etc.) must be returned to the relevant Returning Officer and sealed up in the normal way. 

Any postal votes received back must also be sealed in packets and any envelopes not opened at the time of the notification of the death must be sealed in packets unopened.

Timetable for the new election due to the death of a candidate 

In the event that a new election is required where the poll has been countermanded or abandoned due to a candidate’s death, we will be available to support you in identifying and taking the appropriate actions.
 

Each candidate at a PCC election may provide an election address to the PARO for publication on a website provided by the Minister. A candidate’s election address must be prepared by their election agent and submitted to you on a form prescribed in law by a deadline set by you.1

You must, as soon as reasonably practicable after the publication of the notice of election, give public notice of the deadline for the submission of election addresses to you.2  

In order to ensure that all candidates have the same experience and are working to the same deadlines regardless of which police area they are standing in, PAROs at previous scheduled polls have agreed to set the deadline for submission of election addresses as 12 noon on the last day for nominations. This deadline is reflected in our guidance for candidates and agents.

You should encourage candidates and agents to formally submit the address to you as early as possible in order to allow time for it to be returned to the agent if amendments or corrections are required and for it to be resubmitted by the deadline for submissions. You should acknowledge receipt of a candidate’s address to provide a clear audit trail.
 

The steps that election address must go through before it can be published on the Minister’s website are:

• It must be submitted to you for checking1  
• You must check that it complies with all the legal requirements for an election address2  
  • If it does not meet the legal requirements, you must send it back to the candidate’s agent, inviting corrections and re-submission by the deadline for submissions
  • If it meets the legal requirements, you must forward it on to the Minister, along with a statement stating that you are satisfied the address complies with the relevant requirements. In practice, this should be done as soon as practicable to allow publication on the website by the Minister after 4pm on the nineteenth working day before the poll. Unless special circumstances apply, the deadline for the Minister to receive an election address is midnight on the eighteenth calendar day before the poll (if the eighteenth calendar day falls on a Sunday, the deadline is extended to the seventeenth calendar day before poll). The Minister will then return to you a copy of the address as it will appear on the website. You must also inform the candidate of the date you have submitted the address and of any minor corrections made.
• You must send the website version of the address to the candidate’s agent, inviting any comments and corrections by a further deadline to be set by you.3
• If any comments and/or corrections are received before the deadline you have set, you must make the changes provided they are consistent with the legal requirements for addresses. You must then return the copy of the election address to the Minister as soon as practicable after your deadline.4
• The legislation provides that the Minister must publish the election address on the website as soon as practicable after 4pm on the nineteenth working day before the poll.5
   

The election address must:1

• be submitted to you by the deadline you have published and in the prescribed form
• contain a statement to the effect that it has been prepared by the candidate’s election agent
• give the name and address of the election agent 
• be completed in English or Welsh
• be submitted in electronic form unless you are satisfied that there is good reason for it being submitted in hard copy form 
• specify the candidate’s name
• contain matter relating to the PCC election only
• comply with the formatting requirements specified in the prescribed form
• comply with such other requirements the Minister may specify with a view to facilitating its inclusion on the website 
• be capable of being produced in hard copy form

The election address must not:2

• contain any advertising material (other than material promoting the candidate as a candidate at the PCC election)
• contain any material referring to any other candidate for election at the PCC election
• contain any material appearing to you to be included with a view to commercial gain
• contain any material appearing to you to be indecent, obscene or offensive
• contain any material appearing to you to be such that its publication or distribution would be likely to amount to the commission of an offence
• exceed the 300 word limit specified in the prescribed form (the agent’s statement, name and address count towards the 300 word limit)

The election agent may:3

• when submitting an election address also submit a translation into Welsh or English (as the case may be) which is a complete and accurate translation (this translation is not subject to the 300 word limit)
• include a photograph of the candidate as long as it shows no other person than the candidate and does not contravene the list above of material that the address must not contain
• include a representation of the registered emblem, or (as the case may be) one of the emblems, of a registered political party, if the election address is prepared on behalf of an authorised party candidate 
• where an election address is prepared on behalf of an authorised party candidate, contain a registered description or, if the candidate is authorised by two or more parties, a registered joint description 

You must, for all election addresses delivered to you by the deadline you have given, consider if each of them complies with the legal requirements. You should offer election agents the opportunity to have their candidate’s election address checked at an early stage so that any issues can be identified and rectified before the deadline.1

If any election address does not comply, you must return it to the candidate’s election agent, specifying each respect in which you consider that it does not comply. You may make any minor corrections which you reasonably consider necessary to enable the election address to comply with the requirements.

The candidate’s election agent may re-submit the election address at any time before the deadline you have given for delivery of the election address.

Once you are satisfied that an election address complies with the relevant requirements, you must send the election address to the Minister together with a statement that you are so satisfied.

You must notify the candidate of the date on which their election address was sent to the Minister and of any minor corrections which you have made.

In practice, the statement and declaration should be submitted to the Minister as soon as practicable to allow publication on the website by the Minister after 4pm on the nineteenth working day before the poll. 

The deadline for submission of the election addresses by PAROs to the Minister is midnight on the eighteenth calendar day before the poll. 

The Minister may allow an election address to be submitted after that time but only if they are satisfied that there is good reason for its late delivery. You should therefore include the reasons for submitting any late election address for the Minister’s consideration.2

The Minister will provide you with a copy of each election address as it will appear on the website. You must forward a copy of that election address to the election agent of the candidate with a notice:1

• inviting the election agent to check the content of the copy against the content submitted by the election agent
• specifying the latest time for submission to you of any comments or corrections which the election agent may have

If you receive any comments on or corrections to an election address by the deadline you have set for this purpose, you:

• must make such changes to the copy of the election address as you consider to be consistent with the requirements for an election address
• may make any typographical corrections which you consider necessary

As soon as reasonably practicable you must return the copy of the election address to the Minister with such changes (if any) that have been made. The Minister must then ensure that the election address is included on the website as soon as practicable after 4pm on the nineteenth working day before the poll.

You must prepare a statement to be included on the website, specifying the date of the election and the names of the candidates in the order that they will appear on the ballot paper with their description (if any). The statement must also include your contact details.1
 

You must forward any request you receive for a printed version of the election addresses to the Minister. The Minister, through DLUHC, will arrange for a printed copy and a list of the validly nominated candidates to be sent to the enquirer.1

Also, the Minister may take steps to ensure that, so far as is practicable, the elections addresses are available:

• in other formats such as large print, braille and audio tape
• in the offices of each local authority wholly or partly in the police area
• in public libraries in the police area, and 
• in other premises to which the public normally have access in the police area

You should liaise with LROs in your area and agree a process with them to do this.
 

This section of the guidance covers the appointment of election agents, the requirement to give public notice of the appointment of election agents and how an appointment can be revoked. 

You will also find guidance on the appointment of agents to attend postal vote openings, polling stations and the verification and count. 

An election agent is the person responsible for the proper management of the candidate's election campaign and, in particular, for its financial management. Every candidate must have an election agent.

The notice of the appointment of an election agent must be delivered to you by the latest time for delivery of notices of withdrawal, which is 4pm on the nineteenth working day before the poll. 

We have produced a form for the notification of the appointment of election agents as part of the set of nomination papers for the election of a Police and Crime Commissioner or a Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner.

You should consider communicating information on the election processes, the code of conduct and standard points of behaviour to the election agent at the earliest opportunity. In particular any information you provide should provide links to and highly the new postal vote handling and the new undue influence and intimidation rules.

Can a candidate be their own agent?

A candidate may appoint themselves as their election agent. 

If no agent is appointed by the deadline for withdrawals, the candidate automatically becomes their own election agent.

A candidate also becomes their own agent if:

• they revoke their agent's appointment, or
• their agent dies, and a replacement is not appointed on the day of the death or on the follow day1

Election agent’s office address

The election agent must have an office address to which all claims, notices, legal process and other documents may be sent.2 This must be a physical address – PO boxes or similar mailboxes cannot be used. 

The location of the office must be within the police area.

The election agent’s office address will often be the same as their home address. Alternatively, it might be the local political party office or an office especially set up for the election.

If the candidate gives you written notification of their appointment as their own election agent, they must give an office address within the police area.

Where a candidate acts as their own election agent as a result of not having appointed anybody else, the office address is deemed to be the address given on the statement of persons nominated or, i.e. the one provided on the home address form. If the address is outside the police area, the office address is deemed to be the address of the person named in the statement of persons nominated as proposer.3

This is the case even where a candidate has chosen to withhold their home address from the statement of persons nominated and ballot paper. You should make this clear to candidates.

Upon notification of an election agent’s name and address you must publish a notice setting out those details and the name of the candidate as soon as possible. The notice must be updated if any agent’s appointment is revoked, or the agent dies, and the new agent’s details published on the revised version. You must provide a copy of the notice to all LROs in your police area for them to publish locally.1

Your privacy notice should make clear that you are required under electoral legislation to publish an election agent’s name and address information in the notice of election agents. You will also need to consider whether it is appropriate or necessary for the notice to remain published, on your website or elsewhere, beyond the expiry of the petition period for that election. The notice serves a specific purpose, i.e. advising who will be a candidate’s election agent, so once the election is over, and the opportunity to question that election has passed, they serve no further purpose. Therefore, you should either remove the notice, or remove the personal data contained in the notice, once the petition deadline for the election has passed You can find more information in our guidance on Data Protection. 

An election agent may appoint sub-agents to act on their behalf. 

Election agents may appoint sub-agents for particular parts of the police area, as long as those parts do not overlap. The agent can determine the parts into which they wish to subdivide the police area, and these may cross voting area boundaries.1

The office of the sub-agent must be in the area within which they appointed to act.

A sub-agent can do anything that the election agent is entitled to do within the area to which they are appointed. They may attend the opening of postal votes, the verification and count, as well as the calculation of the results, provided that these are taking place within the area in which they have been appointed to act and they are acting in place of the election agent. 

The election agent must declare to you in writing the name, address and office address of each sub-agent they have appointed and the area in which they may act by the fifth working day before the day of the poll. You should include forms for the notification of appointment of sub-agents in your nomination packs. We have produced a form for the notification of sub-agents as part of the sets of nomination papers for use at the election. 

The election agent can revoke the appointment of a sub-agent at any time. If a sub-agent dies or has their appointment revoked the election agent may appoint a new-sub agent by declaring in writing the name, address, office address and area of appointment of the new sub-agent to you.

Once the name, address, office address and area of appointment of a sub-agent have been declared to you, you must give public notice of these details. You must forward this notice to the LROs in the police area for local publication.

Other agents can be appointed to observe the opening of postal votes, the poll and the count in each voting area. Notice of these appointments must be given to the local government RO or LRO as appropriate.1

You should liaise with the relevant Returning Officers in your police area to determine how best to ensure that this process is as straightforward for candidates and agents as possible, and ensure that the arrangements are clearly communicated to the candidates and their agents.

You can find more information on the appointment of postal voting, polling and counting agents in our PCC election guidance for LROs. 

This section is intended to help you make decisions about some of the key aspects of delivering the verification and the counting of the votes, such as managing the collation of the result, as well as developing plans for managing attendance and observation. 

It provides guidance to support the key decisions you need to make, and highlights recommended approaches to assist you in understanding and discharging your duties to ensure that there is transparency in the process and enabling you to deliver an accurate result in which voters, candidates and political parties have confidence.

You should work closely with the LROs in your area to inform any decisions early on about how the verification, counting and result collation is to be organised and managed across the police area.

You should plan and complete your consultation, dialogue and decision-making in good time, before the formal election campaign period begins. This is to enable LROs to reflect your decisions in their planning for the verification and count. You should also engage with any other stakeholders that have an interest, such as candidates and agents, political parties, voters and the media.

While you should seek input from those affected or interested to inform your decision-making, ultimately the responsibility for making decisions remains with you as PARO.

One of the aspects of the election process where you will particularly want to ensure that there is consistency is the verification and counting of votes, and collation of the result. You will therefore need to consider when, where and how the votes are verified and counted by LROs.

You may choose to hold the count at a central location or allow for counts to be held locally in some or parts of the constituent authorities. However, the verification and count are organised, you should ensure that local ROs’ plans will deliver a consistent standard of administration. 

In developing your plans, you should have regard to the Commission’s principles for a well-run verification and count and consider other practical factors that may affect the organisation and timing of the verification and count. You can find more information about the count in our guidance for LRO’s on Verifying and counting the votes.    

You should record all decisions about when, where and how to verify and count, and communicate these to those affected, bearing in mind that there may be different arrangements in place in different parts of the police area.  

If different arrangements will be in place in different parts of the police area, you should ensure that you communicate clearly to candidates and agents, and others who may be attending or observing verification or count processes, which aspects of those processes may differ, and why. 

You should put in place a robust protocol for the two-way communication of verification and count information between you and LROs, including verification figures and the communication of local count totals.

Where the election is combined with another election, effective co-operation between the different Returning Officers across the police area will be vital due to the increased complexity and volume of ballot papers.

Where the poll at a PCC election has not been combined with the poll at another election, you may take responsibility for the verification and counting of the votes in any or all voting areas by giving notice to the relevant LRO. If you intend to take on this responsibility you should notify the relevant LROs early in the election planning process, and liaise with them regarding when and how the ballot papers are to be delivered to you.

You should ensure that your verification and count arrangements can deliver the following key principles for an effective verification and count:

• all processes are transparent, with a clear and unambiguous audit trail. For example:
  • everything is carried out in clear view of all those entitled to attend
  • sufficient information is provided to attendees on the processes to be followed
  • communication of information is consistent and open
• the secrecy of the vote is maintained at all times
• the security of ballot papers and other stationery is maintained at all times
• the verification produces an accurate result. This means that the number of ballot papers in each box either matches the number of ballot papers issued as stated on the ballot paper account or, if it does not:
  • the source of the variance has been identified and can be explained, and/or
  • the box has been recounted at least twice, until the same number of ballot papers is counted on two consecutive occasions. 
• The count produces an accurate result, where:
  • the total number of votes cast for each candidate, together with the rejected votes matches the total number of ballot papers given on the verification statement for the election
• the verification, count and result collation are timely

In developing a result collation process, you will need to consider each key stage that contributes to the overall result, including verifying the ballot papers and counting the votes in each of the voting areas, collating the local totals and calculating the result, whilst ensuring that these are organised, managed and delivered in such a way as to ensure these key principles can be met.

In addition to considering how to ensure that your processes will enable you to meet the key principles, you should consider other relevant practical factors that will affect organisation and timing of the verification, count and result collation such as:

• other polls taking place in the police area
• the number of local authorities within the police area
• turnout
• the geography of the police area
• size and capacity of venues
• the ability to ensure transparency for candidates, agents and observers at the venues
• the cost of using the venues

As PARO, you and the project team will need to agree the approach to be taken in respect of the timing of the verification, count and result calculation across the police area. The verification of the ballot paper accounts, processing postal votes received on the day, and counting of the votes must begin as soon as practicable after the close of poll.1 As PARO it is up to you to inform LROs how you will approach the co-ordination of the verification and counting of votes. 

Where the PCC poll is combined with another poll you can direct whichever Returning Officer is responsible for verification and counting of the ballot papers as to the time by which the verification is to begin. Any such direction as to timing should be developed in consultation with the relevant Returning Officer(s) to ensure that it can be met in practice.

The overarching principle that should underpin Returning Officers’ decision-making in relation to the timing of election counts, is, the need to ensure an accurate result in which voters, candidates and political parties have confidence. 

As PARO you should consider this principle carefully in deciding when, where and how the votes in each voting area will be verified and counted. You need to ensure that you are confident that both your and the LROs’ processes are managed and resourced in a way that enables counting to produce a timely outcome.

Your decision as to the timing of the verification and count should reflect the following:

• Each PCC election is a single poll producing one result for the police area as a whole. Each voting area’s total counts towards a result for the police area as a whole and therefore it will be important to identify a defined period of time during which all the votes will be counted and totals announced for each voting area.
• The result of the election must be accurate. Underpinning the approach to the timing of the verification and count is the need to ensure an accurate result in which voters and candidates can have confidence. Therefore the period of time specified for the verification and count to take place must be such that LROs can resource and conduct a well-run verification and count process within it.
• The potential for and extent of combined polls in the police area. Where polls are combined, whether in some or all voting areas, you will need to take this into account in identifying the options for timing of the verification and counting of the votes for the PCC election. You should:
  • obtain information from LROs about the other polls taking place and plans for verification and counting at the other polls, and use this information to inform your planning assumptions. 
  • make clear when you communicate the plans for when to verify and count the votes what factors related to combination you have taken into account in making them, and any particular implications of your decisions for areas with combined polls. 
  • ensure that you provide candidates and agents at the PCC election with information for all voting areas, highlighting where combination exists and has had an impact on the decision, including where this has resulted in different arrangements being in place. 
  • keep your plans under review to deal with any emerging situations, such as by-elections being called for the same day as the PCC election poll.

There are a variety of ways in which verification and counting can be organised across the police area, and you will need to decide which is the best option for your police area, based on the combination of polls, whether deputies have been appointed, your local circumstances and those of the LROs and, where relevant, other Returning Officers in your police area. 

At a standalone PCC election, LROs are responsible for the verification of the ballot paper accounts and the counting of the votes for their voting area, unless you have reserved that responsibility for yourself by notifying the relevant LROs.

On completion of the verification procedure at a standalone PCC election, LROs must inform you of the contents of the verification statement i.e. total number of ballot papers counted.1

If the votes are counted at a different venue to where verification takes place, LROs must seal the verified ballot papers in packets with contents lists and send them, along with the ballot paper accounts and the verification statement, to the count venue.2 You may direct LROs to carry out further additional verification procedures once these documents have been delivered to the count venue. 

Where polls are combined, you will need to liaise as early in the planning process as possible with your project team and decide the way the verification and count will be organised in your area to achieve the more effective and transparent process.

Where the poll at a PCC election has been combined with the poll at another election, the relevant Returning Officer will be responsible for verifying the ballot papers at all polls. The LRO will, however, remain responsible for the counting of the votes for their voting area. Therefore where polls have been combined, you should liaise with the relevant Returning Officer to ensure consistency in the verification across the police area.

Where polls have been combined, you will need to obtain the verification statement from the relevant Returning Officer to enable you to check the local count totals against the verification statement and identify any potential variances. LROs must also inform you of the contents of the statement of local count totals, once it has been prepared.

You can find more information about verification and count in our guidance for LROs on managing verification and managing the count. 

There are two broad options for organising the count processes for the PCC election in the police area: 

• Individual local counts and the central collation by the PARO: This option would see the verification and counting of the votes take place in local count venues, with the local totals forwarded to you at a central hub. In this case, you would need to ensure that the process in place for the transmission and receipt of totals from each LRO to the central hub is capable of establishing a clear audit trail, is timely, and supports the development of an accurate result.
• Central police area count: There are two main variations of a centralised count: a count where votes are verified locally before being transferred to a central counting venue, where all of the votes for the police area would then be counted; or a count where votes for all voting areas are both verified and counted in one central counting venue. 

There are, however, variations within these two options and the potential for other ways of organising counts within a police area. For example, across a police area some local authority areas could count locally, while others come together and hold counts on a more centralised basis.

You should liaise closely with the LROs in your area when deciding on the approach. In areas where the poll at the PCC election is combined with the poll at another election, you should work closely with the relevant Returning Officers to agree an approach. Whichever option is chosen, there will be risks and benefits associated with it. You will need to identify these when you develop your proposals for consultation and, once a decision has been made, work with LROs (or the relevant Returning Officers in case of combined polls) to plan how you will manage and mitigate the risks. 

We have set out here some of the key factors you will need to consider in deciding how to organise and manage the verification and counting of the votes in your police area: 

• Consistency of approach: LROs and their staff will have past experience of running election counts in their voting area and will have their own processes and workflows that they are used to following. While this knowledge and experience will be useful in helping to decide how best to organise and manage the verification and counting, you should consider how you will ensure consistency in the approach to verification and counting across the police area, regardless of where the processes are to be carried out.
• Staff resources and availability: The identification, recruitment and training of sufficient, capable staff to conduct the count will also be a key consideration. For example, depending on the geography of the police area it may be more difficult to recruit the necessary numbers of suitable staff to work in a central location than it would be to recruit people to work at a venue closer to their home, who are also more likely to be experienced staff.
• Deployment of staff: You should also consider how to make the most efficient use of staff. This could mean that, unless counts are completed within a similar time, count staff for some voting areas may have completed the process while others are still counting. If count staff are in one (or several) central locations they can be deployed flexibly to maximise productivity in the interests of a timely outcome to the count. You will need to consider how to ensure that the count arrangements enable all voting areas to complete their counting within a reasonable time of each other.
• Venues: Any venues used will need to be of a sufficient size and capacity to accommodate the necessary processes and staff, and enable processes to be carried out effectively and in clear view of those entitled to attend, taking into account potential media attendance at the declaration of the result. LROs will already have venues (and reserve venues) that they have used in the past and are familiar with, along with the verification and count workflows and layouts that work for these venues. If you are using a central venue, the scale of the space needed will depend on the size of the police area and number of electors. You will also need to identify and put in place contingency arrangements, which may include identifying suitable venues of an equivalent size and capacity in case of the loss of a venue.
• Transmission of local totals: LROs need to transmit their local totals to the PARO to enable the police area result to be calculated. You will need to ensure that you provide instructions on the method to be used for transmitting the information accurately and securely, and carry out a test of the process in advance. There are greater risks with this process if counting is carried out locally, for example, as a result of technical issues. You would need to develop contingency arrangements to be deployed in the event of technical problems occurring.
• Security: You should work with LROs to ensure the secure, safe and effective delivery of the verification and count process. As part of this, LROs will have undertaken risk assessment and may have put in place the necessary security measures to manage attendance at verification and the count, such as requiring attendees to show ID and bag checks before being allowed entry, and this can include Commission representatives and accredited observers.  
• Logistics: You should ensure that ballot papers are stored securely at all times. This will be an important consideration in any proposals that would require ballot boxes to be transported to a central venue, or between venues after being verified. You should consider carefully the potential security risks associated with the transportation of ballot boxes and the associated logistical challenges, including how to ensure that where polls are combined the correct ballot papers for each poll are in the right place so that all ballot papers can be included in the appropriate count. 

Your decisions as to when, where and how the votes are to be verified and counted should be taken in accordance with the principles and considerations set out in this chapter. Once you have made your decisions you should consider how best to ensure that LROs plans for managing and resourcing their verification and counting processes will achieve these principles in practice. 

Once you have agreed how the verification and count will be organised and managed, you should ensure that LROs’ plans will deliver a consistent standard of administration of these aspects of the election, so that the election as a whole delivers an accurate result in which everyone can have confidence.

There are a variety of methods for verifying the ballot papers and counting the votes. You can decide whether to require LROs to use particular methods, or to leave it to each LRO to choose their preferred method based on what is most appropriate for their local circumstances and explain it to you. It is for you to decide in conjunction and consultation with LROs in your area which approach to take.

Whatever counting method is used it should be transparent and lead to an accurate outcome. Calculating an accurate result relies on accurate verification and count figures, and you will need to consider specifically how you will ensure that the local totals you receive from LROs to collate the result are accurate before you accept them. You should produce templates of all documents which LROs will be required to complete during the verification and count process to provide a clear audit trail. 

Breaking down the verification and counting of votes into areas smaller than the whole of the voting area is one counting method that is particularly effective in achieving an accurate result. Breaking down the verification and count into parts smaller than the voting area is particularly effective in achieving an accurate, timely result with clear audit trails. The results from those ‘parts’ are then aggregated to achieve an overall local total for the voting area. Any counting issues that may arise will be limited to a more manageable area and any re-counts that may happen as a result, may be limited.

Whatever your decision, you should be able to satisfy yourself that LROs’ plans for verifying and counting can meet the principles for an effective verification and count and will deliver a result that is accurate and in which everyone can have confidence.

You should ensure that there is consistent and transparent communication about the result collation process, both at the result collation venue and at any other count venues, depending on how the verification and counting is organised in your police area, to candidates and agents, the media and other relevant stakeholders. If verification and/or counting is being carried out at a central venue(s) you will need to provide information to attendees about those processes. 

As PARO you must collate the contents of the local verification statements and count totals for each voting area, and calculate and declare the overall result for the police area.1 It is for you as PARO to determine how best to manage this process in your police area. Your project plan should include plans to deliver the calculation of the result.

You should liaise with LROs in planning and developing the process for collating, checking and approving local totals, and provide them with guidance on how this will work in practice. You will need to ensure you have processes appropriate to the risk in place to ensure security of the personal data at the verification and count. 

You should produce and share in advance with LROs templates of all documents which you will require them to complete, during the collation of local totals (whether electronically or in hard copy) to ensure that all information is recorded and transmitted in a consistent way, and to provide a clear audit trail. Any system used should have a contingency in case of any problems or system failures.

You should consider how best to organise and manage the two-way transfer of information between you and LROs. This includes the checking, recording and collating of information from LROs, and the calculation of the result. You should determine whether you need to put in place IT systems or programs to facilitate this.

As a minimum you should develop and implement protocols as necessary for the communication of information between you, LROs and the staff working on the results collating process. You should include how local totals will be communicated, the process for checking local totals and authorisation for them to be shared publicly. Whatever processes and systems you use for collating the result, you need to ensure they meet with the principles set out in our guidance for PAROs on the Principles for effective verification, count and result collation processes.   

You should also make arrangements for testing the process and any supporting systems you intend to use, which should include at least one rehearsal of the process involving your staff, and LROs and their staff in order to ensure that everyone involved understands and is familiar with how the process works and what their responsibilities are. This will also enable any issues to be identified and resolved before the event itself. 

You should ensure that all processes are transparent and carried out in clear view of all those entitled to attend, with information provided to attendees on the processes to be followed.

Only the following people are entitled to attend the result calculation:1

• you and your clerks
• LROs and a clerk chosen by each of them
• candidates and one person chosen by each candidate
• election agents (any sub-agent appointed for the area in which the result calculation takes place may attend while the election agent is not present)
• Electoral Commission representatives
• accredited observers

You may only permit other people to attend if you are satisfied that the efficiency of the calculation will not be impeded, and you have consulted the election agents or thought it impractical to do so.

You must give election agents notification in writing of the time and place at which the results collation will begin. You should also advise of any security arrangements in place and the expected behaviour of attendees, particularly during the delivery of verbal announcements. 

You must give those entitled to attend reasonable facilities for overseeing the results collation. You should also ensure that anyone else who is entitled to attend has an unrestricted view of the proceedings, while also ensuring that they will not be able to interfere with the work of your staff.  

Guidance on developing communication plans to support the delivery of the election can be found in our Planning guidance for PAROs. 

Good communication, both at candidate and agent, and media briefings in advance of the result collation and at the event itself, will allow those present to properly scrutinise the proceedings and will help to build confidence that the result is accurate. Providing information on the processes to be followed can also help to lower the number of queries raised by candidates and agents, the media and other attendees.

Our guidance on verifying and counting the votes for local government ROs and LROs covers the information that should be provided at the verification and count, and ways in which that might be done. As PARO you also need to consider how to ensure consistency and transparency across the police area both in terms of the information that is provided during the verification, count and result collation, and when and how that is communicated, taking into account how the verification and counting is organised across the police area.

You should ensure that you have prepared appropriate information to explain the processes you are going to follow during the result collation to any candidates, agents, observers and media who are present. As a minimum you should explain your role as PARO and identify, where appropriate, your deputies and key result collation staff and explain their roles. You should also explain how the result collation process will work, including how this relates to the verification and counting of votes across the police area, and set out the key stages in the process.

You should make announcements at the start of the event and regularly during proceedings to keep attendees informed about what is happening where and when. You should also announce at the start the expected time for the declaration of result. 

Attendees at the result collation should be kept informed throughout the process. You will therefore need to consider how, and at what stages in the process, you will obtain information from LROs to be able to provide timely information and updates to attendees at the result collation. Where counting is not carried out at one central venue, you will need to reflect in your communication protocols what information needs to be shared about the progress of the verification and count in each of the voting areas, and ensure that consistent information is communicated to you by local government ROs or LROs (as appropriate) regularly throughout the process. You will also need to ensure that you plan for providing them with regular updates on the progress of the processes across the police area, so that they can communicate this information locally.

If agents or observers are dissatisfied in any way with the manner in which the proceedings are being carried out, the opportunity should always be available for them to make direct representations to you, at the earliest opportunity, so that any concerns may be considered, explanations and reassurances given, and corrective action taken if necessary. 

You should have a media plan in place, together with the local government ROs or LROs (as appropriate) for the police area, to ensure that your messages and approach to communication with the media at the verification, count and result collation are consistent across the police area. In addition to making practical arrangements for their attendance, your early contact with the media should include an explanation of the processes to be followed, and the expected time of the result declaration.

At the result collation venue you should include space and opportunity for the media to report on the result. You have discretion to decide which representatives of the media you allow to attend. As with all attendees, you must ensure that media representatives do not interfere with the process or compromise the secrecy of the vote.

You should consider providing information and/or briefings in advance for representatives of the media attending the result collation, and declaration of result, and ensure that you have made the necessary preparations for their presence. Our guidance for local government ROs and LROs contains further details and sets out the kinds of provision you may need to make for press and media attendance. These should include ensuring that the venue has suitable space and equipment, that there are clear processes and resources in place for providing information to, and dealing with enquiries from, the media at the result collation. To assist you and your public relations team we have produced, jointly with the national TV news broadcasters, some ‘tips for managing the media at the count’.

The law sets out the result collation process that must be followed. The key steps are:

Collating the verification figures

• The local government RO or LRO (as appropriate) must verify the ballot paper accounts for their voting area and draw up a statement as to the result of the verification.1
• The local government RO or LRO (as appropriate) must inform the PARO of the contents of their verification statement.2
• The PARO must collate all the verification figures for the police area to produce a total number of the ballot papers going forward to the count for the whole police area.3
• Where the votes are to be counted at a different place to where the verification took place you can direct LROs to carry out further specified verification procedures in relation to the ballot papers and documents relating to the PCC election.4

Collating the count totals

• Once counting is complete, the LRO must share the figures with the candidates and agents present. Candidates, election agents and those counting agents who have been specifically authorised to do so may request a recount.5  
• Once the candidates and agents have had the opportunity to check the figures (and any recount has been completed), the LRO must draw up a statement of local totals including the number of votes cast for each candidate and the total number of rejected ballot papers, and a statement of rejected ballot papers categorised by reason for rejection.6
• Each LRO must, as soon as practicable, inform the PARO of the contents of the statement of local totals.7
• Before the LRO can inform the candidates and agents of the contents of the statements of rejected ballot papers and local totals and give public notice, they must have received authorisation from the PARO.
• The PARO must collate all the local totals for the police area received from LROs. As soon as practicable after the PARO has received all of the local totals for the police area, they must calculate the total number of votes given for each candidate in the police area. 
• The PARO must share the relevant figures with the election agents who are present, and must give them a reasonable opportunity to satisfy themselves as to the accuracy of the calculation. An election agent may request a re-calculation but the PARO may refuse to do so if in their opinion the request is unreasonable.8
• Once the agents have had the opportunity to check the figures (and any re-calculation has been completed) the PARO must declare the result. 

Further guidance on the processes you need to follow after the declaration of the result, including giving public notice of the result, is contained in our guidance for PAROs on After the election. 

The Commission has developed guidance for Local Returning Officers (LROs) on the adjudication of doubtful ballot papers at PCC elections. This is contained in our guidance for LROs at a PCC election and in a separate booklet on adjudicating doubtful ballot papers. 

You should consider how you will work with LROs in your police area to ensure that the ballot papers for the whole police area are adjudicated consistently. This should include consideration of the need for providing briefing or training sessions for LROs and whether you wish to give any additional guidance or directions to them as to how they should adjudicate doubtful ballots.

The categorisation and recording of rejected ballot papers by grounds for rejection is an important part of the audit trail for the count, supporting confidence in the result. You should consider how to ensure that LROs are clear as to how rejections should be categorised and how this information can be accurately recorded.

As PARO you are responsible for authorising LROs to give public notice of the statements of local totals of number of votes cast and ballot papers rejected. Checking and authorising these totals is a key stage in ensuring that the result is accurate and there is a clear and unambiguous audit trail. You therefore need to have in place a thorough and robust checking process to be able to satisfy yourself that the local totals are accurate, and that information and figures are recorded and transmitted accurately by LROs, and recorded and collated accurately by you and your staff.

Calculating an accurate result relies on accurate verification and count figures. You will need to consider specifically what steps you will take to ensure that the local totals you receive from LROs are accurate before you authorise the publication of the local statement.

In particular, you should consider how to ensure that the following are recorded and transmitted consistently and accurately:

• the total number of ballot papers going forward to the count, ensuring that this figure includes all ballot papers from polling stations and postal vote openings
• the total number of votes cast for each candidate
• the total number of rejected votes and the numbers recorded in each category for rejection
  • the total number of votes counted plus the total number of rejected votes should equal the total number of ballot papers that have gone forward to the count

If there is any variance in these figures, you should require the LRO to take whatever steps you think are necessary and appropriate to try to resolve the variance, and to be able to explain any remaining variance to you.

Before any figures are formally accepted by you, they should be checked with the LRO who has provided them, including checking for any transcription errors.

If you have reason to doubt the accuracy of the counting of the votes in any voting area you may direct the LRO to re-count the votes.1 Once you are satisfied with the local totals you may authorise them to give public notice of the statement of local totals.2  

You must calculate the following:1

• the total number of votes cast for each candidate
• the total number of rejected votes
• the number of rejected ballot papers categorised by reason for rejection

Re-calculation of the result

As soon as you have calculated the result of the count, you should inform the candidates and election agents who are present of the totals you have calculated and give them the opportunity to satisfy themselves that your calculations are accurate.2

Election agents may request that you recalculate the totals. You may refuse such a request if you consider it to be unreasonable. 

Recounts

Votes can be recounted by LROs under certain circumstances at the completion of the count.3 Once the result has been declared, the votes counted cannot be recounted.

Candidates, election agents and those counting agents who have been specifically authorised to request a recount may request that the LRO recounts the votes. No other counting agents or persons attending the count can request a recount. The LRO may refuse such a request if they consider it to be unreasonable. 

Any protocol you have produced for how LROs should communicate with you during the verification and count processes should include details of what they should do in the case of a request for a recount: for example, you may want to ask LROs to inform you of all requests they receive for a recount or you could ask to be consulted where they are considering refusing a recount request.

You may direct an individual LRO to recount the votes for a particular voting area, but only if you have reason to doubt the accuracy of the counting of votes in that voting area. You may not direct a full recount of all the votes in the police area.4

You must declare the name of the candidate who is elected.1

When a candidate has used their commonly used name to stand in an election, you should use both their full name and their commonly used name when declaring the result to provide transparency regarding the candidates standing for election.

However, there is no legal requirement to use both their full name and commonly used name, and you can decide on the approach to take when declaring results. Whichever approach is followed, you should ensure that you apply it consistently for all candidates and undertake any additional checks necessary on verification and count paperwork to ensure that candidates’ names appear in the same order as listed on the ballot paper.

When planning for the declaration of the result you should:

• decide on the exact location in the venue where the result will be declared and who will be on the platform at this time 
• ensure the platform is accessible for all those who need to get up on it
• consider if you can make use of display boards to provide a backdrop for the announcement of results
• check any equipment that you will use for the announcement before the proceedings begin
• double-check that the result is accurate, and that it is written in the form of words for oral delivery in order to avoid any errors. 
• ensure that all attendees are aware of the standards of behaviour expected during your announcement
• consider how you will provide media representatives in attendance with a written copy of the results at the time the announcement is made as this will help them to ensure that their transmission of results is accurate

Once a result is declared, it is final and cannot be amended. You should therefore take care to ensure that the result you declare is accurate.

However, if you make an error in your oral announcement you can correct this, provided it is done immediately.

For more information on the post-result notices and other post-election procedures see our guidance for PAROs on After the election.  

This guidance is designed to support you with the activities you are required to complete after the declaration of the result. 

You will find guidance on the immediate actions you need to take with regard to giving formal notice of the result, managing the return or forfeit of the deposit, as well as guidance to support you in managing the storage and retention of election documents.

We have included contact information in relation to accounting for the election, details about the collection of candidates’ election spending returns, and the actions required with that process. 

Finally, this guidance includes information about challenges to the election result and the petition process. 

In addition to declaring the result, you must give public notice of:1

• The name of the candidate elected. You should also include their description (if any).
• The number of rejected ballot papers as shown in the statement of rejected ballot papers  

You should ensure that a copy of the notice of result is made available to all interested parties as soon as possible, and must publish it in a conspicuous place or places in the police authority area. This should include local authority offices, notice boards, libraries and other public buildings, and on your local authority website.  

You must send a copy to each LRO for them to give public notice of the result within their voting area. You must also send a copy of this public notice to the Minister.

Declaration of the acceptance of office

The successful candidate must make a declaration of acceptance of office in a prescribed form, which must be delivered to the appropriate officer in the police area. Legislation sets out that the declaration must be delivered to the head of paid service of a particular local authority designated by the Minister. 

If you are the head of paid service of the local authority designated by the Minister in the police area for this purpose, you should send a copy of the declaration to the Minister. You should keep the original secure until the next PCC election.2

After the election, you must return the deposit to the person who made it, or their personal representative, if the candidate receives more than 5% of the total number of votes polled by all the candidates. 

You must return the deposit not later than the next working day after the election result was declared.1

If you are returning a deposit by cheque, it is treated as being returned on the day on which the cheque is posted.

Any candidate who has not polled more than 5% of the total number of votes polled by all the candidates will forfeit their deposit. 

You must send any forfeited deposits to His Majesty. MHCLG will provide further information on this process. 

After the poll, you should carry out a thorough evaluation of all processes outlined in your project plan, seeking feedback from appropriate stakeholders, and produce a lessons learnt report which can be used to inform planning for future electoral events. 

Your evaluation process should involve seeking feedback from the relevant Returning Officers across your police area and other appropriate stakeholders.

The Commission has provided, as part of the template project plan, some sample objectives and suggested tools that will allow you to measure the extent to which the conduct of the election has been successful. 

The review

The scope of the review should cover all aspects of the election. Your project plan should be used as the starting point for the review, and each process that was planned for and carried out should be reviewed.

A key part of the review will be the consideration of the aims and objectives set out in your project plan and measuring your performance against these.

You should pay particular attention to reviewing:

• your project planning
• whether you were able to secure adequate resources
• the effectiveness of your management and co-ordination structure, including the monitoring of planning for and delivery of the election by the relevant Returning Officers across your police area
• the effectiveness of your communication strategies and methods 
• the recruitment and training of staff 
• engagement with candidates and agents
• the management of the nomination process and publication of candidates’ addresses
• the organisation and delivery of the result collation process 
• the suitability of venues used 
• the processing and handling of queries
• any issues affecting the security/integrity of the election

As part of the review you should seek feedback from appropriate stakeholders, including:

• staff
• electors
• candidates, agents and political parties
• relevant Returning Officers from across the police area and their staff
• local organisations of disabled people, older people and minority ethnic groups, and the council’s access officers

Once you have reviewed all aspects of the election and sought feedback from appropriate stakeholders, you should produce a lessons learnt document. The lessons learnt document should include an analysis of what practices were successful, where these could be used elsewhere, what you would do again or do differently, and key recommendations. The lessons learnt report should then be used to inform your project plan and risk register for future electoral events. You should also provide feedback to relevant Returning Officers across the police area as part of their review of the conduct of the election in their voting area. 

Election notices published on your website

You will need to consider whether it is appropriate or necessary for the various election notices published on your website to remain there beyond the expiry of the petition period for the election. 

Where each notice serves a specific purpose, i.e. advising who will be a candidate at the election, once the election is over, and the opportunity to question that election has passed, they serve no further purpose. Therefore, you should either remove such notices published on your website, or remove the personal data contained in these notices, once the petition deadline for that election has passed.

Data protection legislation does permit personal data to be stored for longer periods if the data will be processed solely for archiving purposes in the public interest, or for scientific, historical, or statistical purposes and subject to the implementation of appropriate safeguards. For election results, for example, you should retain these on your website as they are for public interest and historical and statistical purposes.

Storage of the nomination papers

You must keep the nomination papers secure and allow inspection by the persons listed in our guidance for PAROs on Attendance at the delivery of nomination papers.

After that point you should store the nomination papers securely for one year after the election.

Home address forms

A candidate must complete a home address form as part of their nomination. Home address forms must be kept securely stored for a period of 21 calendar days after the result has been declared.1

They must be securely destroyed on the next working day after the 21-day period. However, if an election petition relating to the election is presented within the 21 calendar days, the home address forms must be kept securely until the conclusion of the petition proceedings (including any appeal from such proceedings). They must then be securely destroyed on the next working day following the conclusion of the proceedings or appeal. 

Candidates must report their election spending and donations made towards their campaign after the election. 

The agent for a candidate must submit a spending and donations return to you together with any accompanying documents, such as relevant invoices and receipts for payments made over £20 and donations received over £50, within 70 calendar days of the date the election result is declared. Agents must also submit a declaration as to the contents of the return within 70 calendar days of the date the election result is declared. The declaration must be in the form set out in the election rules or in a form to like effect.1

Candidates must also submit a declaration as to the contents of the return within seven working days of the election agent submitting the return. The declaration must be in the form set out in the election rules or in a form to like effect.2

If the candidate is outside the UK the declaration must be made within 14 calendar days after the candidate’s return to the UK. If a candidate is acting as their own agent, they are only required to submit one declaration. 

How spending returns may be submitted

It is for you to determine how candidates can submit their expenses, either as hardcopies, by email or both. When determining this you should ensure:

• You advise all candidates and agents of the process in advance
• All candidates and agents are treated fairly and consistently
• The process for submitting spending returns is clear, easy to follow and accessible for all

If you decide to accept spending returns by email you should specify any requirements, such as:

• The specific email address(es) to be used
• How emails should be labelled
• Any requirements regarding the format of email attachments

You should also consider the internal processes you will follow for spending returns submitted by email, for example:

• How you will acknowledge email submissions
• How you will manage spending returns sent to a different email address, such as having processes in place for monitoring email addresses that could be associated with the Police Area Returning Officer or electoral services team
• How to make other teams across the council aware that they should contact you as soon as possible if they receive any emails regarding spending returns
• How you will store the returns electronically

Checking of spending returns

Whilst there is no duty for you to check the completeness or validity of candidate spending returns, if you are aware that an obvious administrative error has occurred, it would be reasonable for you to advise the candidate or agent of this. For example, if you accept spending returns by email and the covering email refers to an attachment of receipts, which have not been included, it would be reasonable to highlight this to the candidate to enable them to re-send the attachment.

You should ensure that all candidates are treated fairly and consistently, and are provided with the same level of support on the submission of their expenses.

Retention of candidates’ spending returns

You must retain a copy of each PCC election spending return and declaration, and any accompanying documents, for a period of two years from the date on which you received it. During that period, you must make the copies available for public inspection without charge in your office or another convenient place chosen by you. 

If you have accepted spending returns via email, you should think about how you will prepare returns for inspection. For example, will you allow inspection to take place on a computer under supervision, or will you print off all of the returns.

You must also provide copies of the returns, declarations or any accompanying documents on request. The fee for a copy of any return, declaration or document is 15p for each side of each page.3

You must remove the addresses of individuals who have made donations to candidates from all copies of statements of donations made available for inspection or supplied on request. 

At the end of the two year period, if the candidate or the election agent requests them, the returns, declarations and accompanying documents must be returned to the candidate, otherwise they should be destroyed. 

Within 10 days of the deadline for candidates to submit their spending returns to you, you must publish in at least two newspapers circulating in the police area a notice of the time and place at which the returns, declarations and accompanying documents can be inspected. You must also send a copy of this notice to each of the election agents.1

If you have not received one of the required returns or declarations you must state this in the notice. If you subsequently receive a return or declaration, you must, within ten days after its receipt, publish a notice (in the same way as the first notice) of the time and place at which that return, declaration and accompanying documents can be inspected, and send a copy of this notice to all the agents.

You must forward un-redacted copies of all the candidate returns and declarations you receive to the Commission. The Commission may also ask you to provide copies of invoices and receipts on request.1

Please email PDF copies to [email protected]. It will be of significant help to us in the processing of emailed returns, and prevent queries from us to you, if you:

• scan each return separately 
• send each return by separate email, as very large attachments will be rejected by our server 
• identify the election and the candidate name in the subject line of the email  
• do not password protect emails or provide passwords or secure websites – a normal email is sufficient 
• do not send associated invoices or other supporting documents, we will ask for these if necessary

If you are unable to email PDF copies, you can forward copies of the returns to the following address:
Political Finance and Regulation 
The Electoral Commission
3 Bunhill Row
London
EC1Y 8YZ

Following the election you may receive requests under the Freedom of Information Act 2000. PAROs, LROs and EROs are not a public authority under this Act and, as such, are exempt from the disclosure requirements imposed by it.1

However, where possible, PAROs, LROs and EROs should disclose the requested information, provided this information is already in the public domain, or the information requested does not include personal data. An example of non-personal data would be statistical data providing the total number of electors registered in the police area or the turnout of postal voters.

At scheduled elections, you will be asked to send information and data to us relating to the elections. 

Forms for collecting information and data, and accompanying guidance notes for completion, as well as a Commission feedback form, will be provided through our Bulletin for electoral administrators.

PCC elections are funded by the UK Government. There will be a Fees and Charges Order which will set out how much you will be able to claim. MHCLG will provide guidance on accounting for the elections. 

Payment of creditors

You should keep receipts before and throughout the period of the elections for all services/work provided, and pay all creditors as soon as possible after the elections.  

Payment of fees to staff 

When paying your fees to staff you need to consider the following.

Income tax

Under tax rules, a standard starter checklist, which is issued at the time of appointment, must be completed. It needs to be completed only once rather than reviewed every year. You will need to issue a P60 form to the employee at the end of the tax year.   

If you terminate the employment of any of your casual staff following the election and issue them with a P45, then any returning casual staff who work at future elections will need to complete a new standard starter checklist at each new election.    

HMRC real-time information 

All election payments made will be subject to HMRC’s real-time information tax payment system. You should ensure that you liaise with your local authority’s finance and HR departments as soon as possible to ensure that you can comply with the tax rules for all your employees, including any temporary and short-term contract staff. Further guidance is available from HMRC. 

Automatic enrolment into a workplace pension

All employers with staff working in the UK must comply with automatic enrolment requirements. Further guidance is available from the Pensions Regulator.

Election petitions

An election petition can be used to challenge the result of a PCC election.

An election petition can be presented by:1

• a person claiming to have been a candidate at the election, or
• four or more persons who voted at the election or who had a right to vote at the election, except for electors registered anonymously

What is the basis for an election petition?

The allowable grounds for a petition are that:2

• the person whose election is questioned was not duly elected
• the person whose election is questioned was disqualified at the time of the election
• the election was invalidated by corrupt or illegal practices or on the grounds specified in Sections 164 and 165 of the Representation of the People Act 1983

Who is made a respondent?

The person whose election is questioned by the petition will most probably be made a respondent to the petition. As PARO, you will be a respondent to the petition if the petition relates to the conduct of the election, and if it relates to the conduct of the election in a particular voting area or areas, the relevant Returning Officers may also be a respondent.3  

Deadlines for bringing petitions

A petition must be presented within 21 days after the day on which the election was held. Further time is allowed in certain circumstances.4

Any person who is considering presenting an election petition should be advised to take their own legal advice. For any questions relating to election petitions, including confirming the deadlines, you should contact the Election Petitions Office:

The Election Petitions Office 
Room E105 
Royal Courts of Justice 
Strand 
London WC2A 2LL 
Email: [email protected] 
Phone: 0207 947 6877

Any person may apply to the High Court for a declaration that a Police and Crime Commissioner, or Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner is, or at any time since being elected has been, disqualified from being a Police and Crime Commissioner, or Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner.

Any person who is considering applying for a judicial declaration of disqualification should be advised to take their own legal advice.

Planning for the election

Voter Materials

Starting the election timetable

Nominations and the Elections Address

Agents

Verification and Count