Guidance for Petition Officers

As soon as reasonably practicable you must:

• determine whether the recall petition is successful or unsuccessful 
• notify the Speaker of the outcome of petition, and 
• once the Speaker has acknowledged the receipt of the result, give public notice of the outcome1  

If at least 10% of the eligible registered electorate in the constituency sign the petition, the petition will be successful.2 The seat will then be declared vacant and a by-election will follow.

Notifying the speaker 

There is no prescribed format for notifying the Speaker of the petition outcome. 

However, you should ensure that you agree how you will notify them in advance, so that there is no delay to giving public notice of the outcome. The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities have issued Guidance for Petition Officers on this matter. 

Notice of outcome

The public notice of the outcome of the petition must include:3  

• the name and constituency of the MP who was subject to the petition process
• details about the recall condition which was met
• the start and end dates of the signing period
• whether or not the petition was successful
• the number of eligible registered electors
• the number and percentage of eligible registered electors who validly signed the petition
• the number of rejected signing sheets under each heading shown in the statement of rejected signing sheets