Guidance for Petition Officers
Preventing fraud and maintaining integrity
Members of the public and campaigners should be confident that the petition process is free from fraud.
You will need to put plans in place to prevent electoral fraud and work with your police single point of contact (SPOC) to deal with any specific allegations or patterns of activity that might indication potation integrity problems.
There are a number of potential offences at a petition, including but not limited to:
- Personation1
- Signing and proxy signing offences2
- False application to sign by post or by proxy3
- False statements in absent signing4
- Tampering with signing sheets5
- Interference with notices6
- Breaches of the secrecy requirements7
- Producing materials which imitate official petition notices8
- False statements as to the MP or an accredited campaigner9
- Payment for displaying notices10
- Breaches of imprint requirements11
- Payment of canvassers12
- Illegal payments13
- Bribery14
- Treating15
- Undue influence16
- 1. Regulation 118, Recall of MPs Act 2015 (Recall Petition) Regulations 2016 ↩ Back to content at footnote 1
- 2. Regulation 119, Recall of MPs Act 2015 (Recall Petition) Regulations 2016 ↩ Back to content at footnote 2
- 3. Regulation 120, Recall of MPs Act 2015 (Recall Petition) Regulations 2016 ↩ Back to content at footnote 3
- 4. Regulation 137, Recall of MPs Act 2015 (Recall Petition) Regulations 2016 ↩ Back to content at footnote 4
- 5. Regulation 122, Recall of MPs Act 2015 (Recall Petition) Regulations 2016 ↩ Back to content at footnote 5
- 6. Regulation 138, Recall of MPs Act 2015 (Recall Petition) Regulations 2016 ↩ Back to content at footnote 6
- 7. Regulation 123, Recall of MPs Act 2015 (Recall Petition) Regulations 2016 ↩ Back to content at footnote 7
- 8. Regulation 126, Recall of MPs Act 2015 (Recall Petition) Regulations 2016 ↩ Back to content at footnote 8
- 9. Regulation 129, Recall of MPs Act 2015 (Recall Petition) Regulations 2016 ↩ Back to content at footnote 9
- 10. Regulation 130, Recall of MPs Act 2015 (Recall Petition) Regulations 2016 ↩ Back to content at footnote 10
- 11. Regulation 131, Recall of MPs Act 2015 (Recall Petition) Regulations 2016 ↩ Back to content at footnote 11
- 12. Regulation 132, Recall of MPs Act 2015 (Recall Petition) Regulations 2016 ↩ Back to content at footnote 12
- 13. Regulation 133, Recall of MPs Act 2015 (Recall Petition) Regulations 2016 ↩ Back to content at footnote 13
- 14. Regulation 134, Recall of MPs Act 2015 (Recall Petition) Regulations 2016 ↩ Back to content at footnote 14
- 15. Regulation 135, Recall of MPs Act 2015 (Recall Petition) Regulations 2016 ↩ Back to content at footnote 15
- 16. Regulation 136, Recall of MPs Act 2015 (Recall Petition) Regulations 2016 ↩ Back to content at footnote 16
Last updated: 12 February 2025