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 indicate potential 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
- Handling of postal petition documents by political campaigners6
- Interference with notices7
- Influencing persons signing a petition8
- Breaches of the secrecy requirements9
- Producing materials which imitate official petition notices10
- False statements as to the MP or an accredited campaigner11
- Payment for displaying notices12
- Breaches of imprint requirements13
- Payment of canvassers14
- Illegal payments15
- Bribery16
- Treating17
- Undue influence18
- 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 122A, Recall of MPs Act 2015 (Recall Petition) Regulations 2016 ↩ Back to content at footnote 6
- 7. Regulation 138, Recall of MPs Act 2015 (Recall Petition) Regulations 2016 ↩ Back to content at footnote 7
- 8. Regulation 123A, Recall of MPs Act 2015 (Recall Petition) Regulations 2016 ↩ Back to content at footnote 8
- 9. Regulation 123, Recall of MPs Act 2015 (Recall Petition) Regulations 2016 ↩ Back to content at footnote 9
- 10. Regulation 126, Recall of MPs Act 2015 (Recall Petition) Regulations 2016 ↩ Back to content at footnote 10
- 11. Regulation 129, Recall of MPs Act 2015 (Recall Petition) Regulations 2016 ↩ Back to content at footnote 11
- 12. Regulation 130, Recall of MPs Act 2015 (Recall Petition) Regulations 2016 ↩ Back to content at footnote 12
- 13. Regulation 131, Recall of MPs Act 2015 (Recall Petition) Regulations 2016 ↩ Back to content at footnote 13
- 14. Regulation 132, Recall of MPs Act 2015 (Recall Petition) Regulations 2016 ↩ Back to content at footnote 14
- 15. Regulation 133, Recall of MPs Act 2015 (Recall Petition) Regulations 2016 ↩ Back to content at footnote 15
- 16. Regulation 134, Recall of MPs Act 2015 (Recall Petition) Regulations 2016 ↩ Back to content at footnote 16
- 17. Regulation 135, Recall of MPs Act 2015 (Recall Petition) Regulations 2016 ↩ Back to content at footnote 17
- 18. Regulation 136, Recall of MPs Act 2015 (Recall Petition) Regulations 2016 ↩ Back to content at footnote 18
Last updated: 5 August 2026