Guidance for Petition Officers

You will need to put arrangements in place for the opening of postal signing packs and the verification of personal identifiers, in accordance with the regulations and in a similar way as you would for postal votes at an election.

Receipt of postal signing packs

Postal signing packs can be returned to you as Petition Officer by hand or by post, or by hand to any signing place in the constituency.1  

You will need to liaise with Royal Mail about the return of postal packs during the signing period and confirm any arrangements for a final sweep on the last day for signing.

For a postal signing pack to have been duly returned, it must have been received by you before the end of the signing period.2 The end of the signing period will be as set out in your notice of petition. 

The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities Guidance for Petition Officers, clarifies that the closing time for signing places will determine the deadline for the receipt of postal signing packs at each signing place.

A person must still be permitted to return a postal signing pack if, at the closing time for their signing place, they are in a queue for the purpose of delivering a postal signing pack.

Opening and checking sessions 

As part of your planning for the petition you will need to identify the number of postal signing sheet opening sessions that you think you will require and when these should be held, and make arrangements for these as necessary.

The only people who can attend the opening sessions are you, petition clerks, appointed assistants and any representatives of the Electoral Commission.3  There is no provision for the MP or their representatives to attend.

The requirements for postal boxes and receptacles are similar to those at an election, as are as the processes for opening the covering envelopes, marking the absent signers list, dealing with provisional rejections, checking the personal identifiers, retrieving cancelled signing sheets, etc.4  More information can be found in our absent vote guidance for AROs.

Final opening session

You should keep to a minimum the number of postal signing sheets that still have to be opened during the count in order to avoid any potential delay to the count process. 

At the final session you should finalise the lists of incomplete postal signing packs returned.

Following the completion of the final opening of postal votes, you are required to securely seal various receptacles and documents, and forward / retain them. More details can be found in the Storage and disposal of documents 5 section. 

Postal petition statement rejection notices

It is the ERO’s responsibility to send postal petition statement rejection notices within three months of the last day for signing the petition.