Managing issues with postal vote production or delivery
Whilst having robust quality assurance measures in place will help to ensure that supplier services are delivered correctly, it is important to be prepared for managing any errors or issues that may arise. As soon as you are made aware of an issue, either through escalation from your supplier, or through contact with electors, it is important to talk to your supplier to try to understand the scale and scope of the issue, and consider your pre-existing contingency plans as appropriate, as this will impact on your decision making on how to resolve the issue.
Before making any decisions on what action to take, it is important that you contact us so that we can discuss the issue with you and provide tailored advice and support in how to manage it.
Once you have all of the relevant information, have taken the appropriate advice and have made a decision on what action to take, you should agree plans with your suppliers accordingly and keep in close contact as these contingency plans are carried out. This may involve needing to re-check and approve proofs, or data figures or similar very urgently – but it is important that you still ensure that quality assurance checks are carried out to prevent any further errors.
You can find more information about proof checking in our guidance on quality assurance.
You will also need to consider what additional communications may be needed for electors or candidates and agents as a result of the issue; again this is something that Commission contacts can help you think through, so it is important that you contact us to discuss at the earliest opportunity.
To find out how to contact your local Commission team see our Contact Us page.