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 UK government 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.

Postal signing packs handed in by hand 

There are limits to the number of postal signing packs that can be handed in by an individual, and restrictions on who the individual handing in the postal signing packs can be. For more information see our ARO guidance on who can hand in postal votes. 

You should follow the same processes for the hand delivery of postal signing packs as at a UK Parliamentary election. For more information see our ARO guidance on the procedure to be followed when receiving postal votes handed in at council offices. The polling station handbook for UK Parliamentary elections sets out the procedure to be followed for postal signing packs handed in at the signing station.

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 signing packs, 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 documents5 section. 

Preparing a record of whose postal signing packs were rejected when handed in

As in an UK Parliamentary election, you must keep a list of any elector whose postal signing pack was rejected at the point it was handed in (or left behind) at a signing place or at the council office.6 For more information see our guidance on recording postal signing sheets that were rejected when handed in.

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.