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

In England and Wales the responsibility for administering inspection and supply of marked registers and marked absent voter lists rests with the Electoral Registration Officer, not the RO. Further guidance on this can be found in:

• our ERO guidance for England
• our ERO guidance for Wales

In Scotland the RO retains responsibility for: 

• public inspection of election documentation
• supply of copies of the marked register of electors and absent voters’ lists
• election documentation available to police and security organisations

The following pages identify:

• the types of election documents available for inspection or supply
• who can have access to these documents
• how requests for accessing these documents must be made
• any applicable fees (where relevant) 

You should ensure you have processes in place to retrieve data and securely destroy it at the appropriate time in accordance with electoral law and with your document retention policy which should include the data protection principles. 

If you receive a request to inspect any documents that contain personal data, for example the postal voting statement, you must also take into consideration whether inspection of the completed statement by that individual, falls within the remit of their basis for lawful processing. 

As a data protection safeguarding measure, it may also be proportionate to redact some personal data, for example the date of birth or signature, before providing the inspection of such documents.