You should ensure that there is consistent and transparent communication about the result collation process, both at the result collation venue and at any other count venues, depending on how the verification and counting is organised in your police area, to candidates and agents, the media and other relevant stakeholders. If verification and/or counting is being carried out at a central venue(s) you will need to provide information to attendees about those processes.
As PARO you must collate the contents of the local verification statements and count totals for each voting area, and calculate and declare the overall result for the police area.1
It is for you as PARO to determine how best to manage this process in your police area. Your project plan should include plans to deliver the calculation of the result.
You should liaise with LROs in planning and developing the process for collating, checking and approving local totals, and provide them with guidance on how this will work in practice. You will need to ensure you have processes appropriate to the risk in place to ensure security of the personal data at the verification and count.
You should produce and share in advance with LROs templates of all documents which you will require them to complete, during the collation of local totals (whether electronically or in hard copy) to ensure that all information is recorded and transmitted in a consistent way, and to provide a clear audit trail. Any system used should have a contingency in case of any problems or system failures.
You should consider how best to organise and manage the two-way transfer of information between you and LROs. This includes the checking, recording and collating of information from LROs, and the calculation of the result. You should determine whether you need to put in place IT systems or programs to facilitate this.
As a minimum you should develop and implement protocols as necessary for the communication of information between you, LROs and the staff working on the results collating process. You should include how local totals will be communicated, the process for checking local totals and authorisation for them to be shared publicly. Whatever processes and systems you use for collating the result, you need to ensure they meet with the principles set out in our guidance for PAROs on the Principles for effective verification, count and result collation processes.
You should also make arrangements for testing the process and any supporting systems you intend to use, which should include at least one rehearsal of the process involving your staff, and LROs and their staff in order to ensure that everyone involved understands and is familiar with how the process works and what their responsibilities are. This will also enable any issues to be identified and resolved before the event itself.