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

If there are no objections to nomination papers, you must publish a statement of persons nominated for the constituency at 5pm on the last day for delivery of nomination papers. 

If there are objections, the statement must be published by 4pm on the working day after the last day for nominations.1  

Contents of the statement of persons nominated

The statement of persons nominated must include the following information for all candidates who are validly nominated:

• name
• home address, or, if they have requested not to make their home address public:
  • if their home address is in the UK, the UK Parliamentary constituency, the relevant area in which their home address is situated or country as appropriate
• description (if any)
• subscribers’ names (up to 30, taken from the ‘selected nomination form’ and up to two others if multiple nomination forms have been delivered)

It must also include those who no longer stand nominated and the reason why (i.e. those who have withdrawn or whose nomination you have rejected).2   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, under electoral legislation, you are required to publish the candidates’ name and address information in the statement of persons nominated. You can find out more about the data protection considerations of a privacy notice in our data protection guidance.

The statement of persons nominated must also include the notice of poll if the election is contested. More information about the notice of poll can be found in our guidance on Publishing the notice of poll. 

Ordering of names on the statement of persons nominated

The names of the candidates must be listed in alphabetical order of their surname.3 This is also how they will appear on the ballot paper.4  

If there are two or more candidates with the same surname, the alphabetical order of the other names will decide which candidate is listed first.5  

If a person has requested the use of a commonly used name on their nomination paper, the commonly used name must be shown on the statement instead of the actual name.6  

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.

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, by law, be published on the statement of persons nominated instead of the commonly used name.

Considerations where a candidate has asked for their home address not to be published

If more than one validly nominated candidate has:

• asked for their home address not to be published, and
• has provided the same relevant area of the UK (or the same country) on their home address form as another candidate(s)

You must consider whether two or more of them have the same name or a name so similar that it is likely to cause confusion.7   

If you consider that this is the case, you may add such details from their home address or nomination form as you consider appropriate to reduce the likelihood of confusion.8      

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 give notice in writing to the affected candidate(s) informing them of the additional information that will be published.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 information about proof checking in our quality assurance guidance, and in the following quality assurance checklist.