Guidance for Petition Officers

Once you have received the Speaker’s notice, you must, as soon as reasonably practicable, designate signing places.1 These are the places where the recall petition will be made available for eligible electors to sign, in a similar way that electors vote in polling stations.

You may designate up to a maximum of 10 signing places.2  

In determining how many signing places to make available, and the locations to be used as signing places, you must seek to ensure that:

• all persons entitled to sign the recall petition have such reasonable facilities for signing it as are practicable in the circumstances, and
• so far as is reasonable and practicable, every place designated is accessible to disabled persons3

As when designating polling places at an election, you should base your decision on what is practicable and reasonable for the constituency. Although, in some areas, the choice of buildings for the full six week period may be limited, wherever possible, you should ensure that signing places are situated at a reasonable distance and are as convenient as possible for electors allocated to sign there, ideally with good access for pedestrians and those travelling by public transport.

As you can only designate up to 10 signing places, there will be more electors allocated to each signing place than is usual for an election. You should consider the geography and the elector distribution in your constituency to determine which electors are allocated to each signing place.     

The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities have also issued further guidance for Petition Officers on this matter