Guidance for Police Area Returning Officers administering a Police and Crime Commissioner election in England and Wales

You should ensure that candidates and election agents are offered a briefing session on the election processes, including local arrangements. 

You should also hold an additional briefing session after the list of candidates standing for election has been confirmed after the close of nominations.

As a minimum, your briefing should cover:

• the nomination process
• the election process
• election spending
• accessing the electoral register
• handling of postal votes restrictions on the handling of postal voting documents by campaigners
• the Code of conduct for campaigners in Great Britain

You should also inform candidates and agents that Voter Identification requirements are in place for this poll. This is especially important if other polls are being run in your police area where photographic ID is not a requirement. For example in Wales if local by-elections are being combined with the PCC. 

You will also need to work with any Local Returning Officers (LROs) to decide how information about local arrangements will be provided. This will include information about how they will run key election processes and the dates, times and venues, such as: 

• postal vote issues and openings
• polling day, including the equipment provided to polling stations that makes voting easier for disabled people 
• the verification and count, including any additional security measures that will be in place

The briefings should allow for the fact that there may be people who have little or no knowledge of election rules and procedures or who have not involved themselves in elections for some time. 

All briefing sessions should highlight the importance of following the election rules. You should emphasise the importance of candidates understanding the qualifications and disqualifications that apply, as some are different to those that typically apply at other elections (particularly, the one relating to being convicted of an imprisonable offence) and could cause confusion even amongst those who have stood for election before. You should also provide information on the standards of behaviour you expect from supporters in the area of the polling place on polling day, and during the verification and count.

Each candidate at a PCC election may provide an election address to the PARO for publication on a website provided by the Secretary of State. A candidate’s election address must be prepared by their election agent and submitted to you on a form prescribed in law by a deadline set by you.1 As part of your planning, you will need to consider how you are going to manage this process in practice. Further guidance on the website will be provided by MHCLG.

Your briefing session(s) should also highlight any security arrangements that have been put in place in consultation with the police, including your plans to share candidate email/phone number contact details with your local force elected-official adviser (FEOA) to help maintain candidate safety. You should advise candidates of how their contact details will be used and provide an opportunity to opt out if necessary. 

You should also invite your police single point of contact (SPOC) to attend any briefing sessions and FEOA, or to provide written material that you can provide to candidates and agents.

Additional security guidance for candidates and agents is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/security-guidance-for-may-2021-elections.  

We have produced a template presentation for candidates and agents at a Police and Crime Commissioner election that you can use which is available to download from our website in both English and Welsh.