Guidance for Local Returning Officers administering a Police and Crime Commissioner election in England and Wales

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Guidance for Local Returning Officers administering a Police and Crime Commissioner election in England and Wales

The following guidance has been produced to support Local Returning Officers (LROs) in planning for and delivering Police and Crime Commissioner elections. It has been written to cover both ordinary and by-elections.

It has been developed in close consultation with colleagues across the electoral community including the Society of Local Authority Chief Executives (SOLACE), the Association of Electoral Administrators (AEA), the UK Electoral Coordination and Advisory Board (ECAB) and the Elections, Registration and Referendums Working Group (ERRWG).

It reflects the LRO’s legal obligations and what we, and colleagues across the electoral community, believe that LROs should expect of their staff in preparing for and delivering Police and Crime Commissioner 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 ROs will need to have in place and what we would expect to see for the key outcomes of the standards to be delivered. You should be mindful of this framework in the planning and delivery of the election.

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

How to use this guidance

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

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

This guidance is for Police and Crime Commissioner elections.

In this guidance the term ‘voting area’ is the local authority area. The term ‘police area’ is the area covered by the police force.

Guidance to support ROs with other types of election is also available.

You can also access Guidance for Candidates and Agents.

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

Questions and answers document about our web based guidance

Change log

Date of update	Description of change
February 2024	Updates to guidance to include further considerations when determining absent vote applications Absent voting timetable Proxy voting Planning for the determination of proxy vote applications close to a poll Planning for the issue of postal votes The issuing process Polling station registers and absent voting lists New and updated guidance to reflect the postal vote handing in process Identifying support staff from your council Training staff to receive postal votes handed in at council offices Return and receipt of postal votes Who can hand in postal votes? Where can postal votes be returned by hand? Managing receipt of postal votes handed in to the Local Returning Officer What is the procedure for receiving postal votes handed in to the Local Returning Officer at council offices? When must a postal vote that is handed in be rejected? Delivery of postal votes from council offices to the Local Returning Officer Planning for postal vote opening Keeping records of the receipt and opening of postal ballot packs Process for opening postal votes The final opening of postal votes Preparing a record of those postal votes that have failed the identifier checks Preparing a record of those postal votes that were rejected when handed in Receipt and management of ballot papers and election material at the verification Responsibility for sealing and retaining election documents Post election data collection Documents not available for inspection
January 2024	Voter material section updated to include the requirement of an address to appear on the ballot papers
November 2023	Updates throughout the guidance to include Tranche 2 provisions of the Elections Act 2022
October 2023	Updates to include new guidance on what to consider when determining absent vote applications now that verification of identity is required and applications can be determined up to and including the day of poll Issuing and distributing postal votes Planning for the issue of postal votes Options for delivering postal ballot packs Polling station registers and absent voting lists Proxy voting Planning for the determination of proxy vote applications close to a poll
March 2024	Removed the specific police area names where the PCC takes on the fire function.

Guidance for Local Returning Officers administering a Police and Crime Commissioner election in England and Wales