Guidance for Returning Officers administering a Greater London Authority (GLA) election

You should have in place plans and processes to maintain the integrity and security of the election. 

Your plans should be developed in consultation with the relevant police Election Single Point of Contact (SPOC). Your police Election SPOC is your contact for election-related crime, including allegations of fraud. Your police Force Elected-Official Adviser (FEOA) is a dedicated police contact for raising security concerns and sharing any relevant intelligence involving any elected officials and candidates for those roles. For more information, see our guidance on working with your local police force. 

The plans should include:

• how you will work with the local police force, including the Election SPOC, outlining the division of responsibilities so that there is clarity about each other’s roles, clear lines of communication and agreement on how regularly you would expect to be in contact 
• how you will communicate your approach to maintaining security and electoral integrity with stakeholders and electors, in order to support public confidence in the election
• how you plan to share candidate contact details with the FEOA to enable them to contact candidates and agents directly with updated security guidance. You should review your data protection policies and privacy notices to ensure these are fit for purpose
• mechanisms for monitoring indicators of possible electoral fraud and thresholds for action in response
• specific steps to deal with any safety concerns throughout the process such as:
  • If there is an immediate and direct threat to personal safety and/or the incident is currently ongoing and urgent, the candidate and/or their staff or family should call 999 as a priority
  • If the incident does require an urgent response but is not currently ongoing or an immediate threat, it is important to use the 101 service or Contact us | Police.uk (www.police.uk).This is the easiest and quickest way to record incidents and obtain the allocation of appropriate resources and gain a reference number.
  • Neither the FEOA, nor Election SPOC, is the right person to contact to record these incidents and may not be even on duty when they occur. They will be notified though, via internal processes. Both of these Officers will be aware of the incidents and the Election SPOC may well manage crimes of election fraud, but this is not part of the FEOA role.
• specific steps to deal with any potential electoral fraud such as:
  • an agreed approach for referring allegations of fraud for further investigation where appropriate
  • establishing a process for handling evidence, so that the police can carry out any forensic analysis
  • any specific risks you have identified in addition to any general fraud detection plans

Specific integrity risks might include the risks associated with houses of multiple occupation such as student halls of residence or care homes where other people may have access to personal mail or where care givers may assist residents in care homes with completing postal vote applications or postal votes.

The GLRO may also share the approach to tackling electoral fraud with parties, candidates and agents at briefing sessions and/or within the information provided to them. 

The GLRO may also consider inviting the police to attend any such briefing sessions.

Making plans to ensure the security of papers

Your project plan should include a review of security arrangements with the local police to ensure the security of ballot papers throughout the process.

Your security arrangements should prevent unauthorised access to or use of the ballot papers during all stages of the production process and storage between printing and the poll.

You should also take all necessary steps to ensure the security of ballot boxes and relevant stationery from the close of poll through to the declaration of the result, particularly should there be a break in proceedings. You should liaise with your Election SPOC on this. By law, where the whole or any part of the period between 5 pm and 10 am on the next day is excluded (following consent from the GLRO), you have a duty to place the documents under your seal and to take proper precautions for the security of the papers and documents.1  

Whichever method of storage you choose, it should be such that you can be satisfied that you have taken all necessary steps to ensure that ballot boxes and other items are kept securely at all times and cannot be interfered with.

In addition, you should take all necessary steps to ensure that police officers (which include police community support officers) attend at polling stations or call in during polling day, as appropriate, and discuss any security issues relating to any other aspects of the process including community safety for voters.