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

Determining the nomination form and home address form

A candidate who delivers completed nomination papers and pays the deposit by the required deadline will be deemed nominated unless:

• you decide that the nomination form is invalid or that the home address form has not been completed correctly 
• or the candidate dies or withdraws.1

You must determine the validity of a nomination form and the home address form as soon as is practicable after formal delivery. The sooner you carry out the formal determination, the greater the chance of those candidates who have made a mistake and whose nomination has been rejected being able to submit new papers before the close of nominations.

The Elections Act 2022 has updated the grounds on which you can determine a nomination invalid. For more information see our guidance on determining a nomination to be invalid.

We have produced a checklist to assist you with processing nomination forms.
 

Accepting nominations at face value

You must not:

• undertake any investigation or research into any candidate. Your duty does not go beyond seeing that a nomination form and home address form is correct on face value.2

You should not:

• investigate whether a name given on a nomination form is genuine

You should:

• disregard any personal knowledge you may already have of the candidate 
• determine nominations on the basis of the form itself