Guidance for (Acting) Returning Officers administering a UK Parliamentary election in Great Britain

You must mark the postal voters’ list or postal proxy voters’ list whenever a postal voting statement is returned, regardless of whether or not it is accompanied by a ballot paper.1

Confirming to voters their postal vote has been returned

You are required to confirm to a voter or postal proxy, if requested, whether you have received a postal voting statement or postal proxy back. You can do this by checking the marked lists.2

You are also required to confirm, if requested, if the number of the ballot paper issued to the elector or postal proxy has been recorded on either of the two lists of provisionally rejected votes that are required to be kept and used for matching up documents. For more information on this see our guidance on the process for opening postal votes.3

You must be satisfied that any request has been made by the elector or postal proxy themselves before providing any confirmation regarding the status of their ballot.4 You could, for example, ask for their name, address and date of birth before providing the information.