Guidance for Returning Officers administering a Scottish Parliament election

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Emergency proxies

An elector may appoint an emergency proxy to vote on their behalf in certain circumstances. Those circumstances are outlined in the table below:1

Emergency proxy circumstancesRequirements of the circumstances
Disability –
A medical condition, illness or otherwise		A condition arising before the deadline for ordinary proxies – and the nature of the disability meant that the applicant could not reasonably be expected to have made an application for proxy before the deadline for ordinary proxy applications. They must provide an explanation of why they were unable to apply before the ordinary deadline at 5pm 6 working days before poll.2
Disability –
A medical condition, illness or otherwise 		A condition arising after deadline for ordinary proxy applications – 5pm 6 working days before poll. The applicant will need to state the grounds on which the application is being made.
Disability –
Accompanying another person to attend medical care or treatment		The need to accompany an individual arises after deadline for ordinary proxy applications – 5pm 6 working days before poll. The applicant will need to state the grounds on which the application is being made.
Mental health patient After the deadline for ordinary proxies an applicant becomes detained under civil powers (i.e. those who are not detained offenders). 
Occupation, service or employment The applicant became aware of the fact that they could not attend the polling station due to their occupation, service or employment after the deadline for ordinary proxy application – 5pm 6 working days before the poll.
Detained in a penal institution (to serve a sentence of 12 months or lessAfter the deadline for ordinary proxies an applicant is detained in a penal institution (to serve a sentence of 12 months or less), they may apply for an emergency proxy until 5pm on polling day. The application must state that the applicant is detained and include the name of the penal institution.3
Emergency change of proxyArising after deadline for ordinary proxy applications – 5pm 6 working days before poll. The application must state the reasons why the circumstances of the proxy on the date of the poll will, or are likely to be, such that they cannot reasonably be expected to vote in person at the polling station.4

You should liaise with the ERO to agree with them a method for communicating any additions to the list of proxies that result from the granting of emergency proxy applications.

If you are responsible for a constituency that crosses local council boundaries you should agree with the ERO for each council area a method for communicating any additions to the list of proxies that result from the granting of emergency proxy applications.

Whenever an emergency proxy has been appointed, every effort should be made to contact the appropriate polling station staff to inform them of this, including by phone, particularly as there is no requirement in law for the proxy to provide any documentation in order to be permitted to vote.

Wherever possible, however, the ERO should provide the proxy of any voter whose application has been accepted a letter authorising them to act as a proxy, which should include the details of the election and the person on whose behalf they are voting. The ERO should advise the proxy to take that authorisation letter with them when they go to vote and hand it to the polling station staff. If such a letter is provided at the polling station, polling station staff should mark it to show that the proxy has been issued with ballot papers and the marked letter should be retained with the list of proxies. 

The ERO should also, where possible, provide a supplementary list of proxies which can be issued to the relevant polling station and added to the list originally supplied.

The agreed method for communicating additions to the list of proxies on polling day should be covered at the training session for polling station staff. For more information see our guidance on staffing and training. 

You could ask polling station inspectors to liaise with the electoral registration office regarding emergency proxy applications granted on polling day and should advise them of procedures to be followed.

For more information see our guidance for EROs on emergency proxies.

Last updated: 18 November 2025