Guidance for Returning Officers administering a Scottish Parliament election

All candidates, whether constituency, individual regional candidates or those on a party list must formally consent to their nomination and deliver their consent by the deadline for delivery of nomination papers, which is 4pm, 23 working days before the poll.1

The consent to nomination form is not prescribed, but the required content is set out in law.

The form must include:2

• the candidate’s date of birth
• a statement that they are aware of the provisions of Sections 15 to 18 of the 1998 Scotland Act (as amended) and of any order in Council made under Section 15 of that Act
• a statement that to the best of their knowledge they are not disqualified from being a Member of the Scottish Parliament
• in the case of a constituency candidate a statement that they are aware of the provisions of Sections 5(2) and 9(6) of the 1998 Scotland Act and that to the best of their knowledge and belief they may stand as a candidate to be a member for that constituency
• in the case of a candidate on a registered party’s regional list a statement that they are aware of the provisions of Section 5(7) of the 1998 Scotland Act and that to the best of their knowledge and belief they may be included in that list
• in the case of an individual regional candidate for return as a regional member a statement that they are aware of the provisions of section 5(8) of the 1998 Scotland Act and that to the best of their knowledge and belief they may stand as an individual regional candidate to be a regional member for that region

The consent form must be signed and dated by the candidate and the date must be on or within one calendar month before the last day for the delivery of nomination papers.3

The consent must be witnessed by another person, but there are no restrictions on who can be a witness to the consent to nomination and it must be submitted by hand and cannot be submitted by post, fax, email or other electronic means.

If you are satisfied that, due to the absence of the candidate from the UK, it is not reasonably practicable for the candidate to provide their consent in writing, you can treat a candidate’s consent given by email, fax or scanned document sent electronically as written consent. The consent is deemed as having been given on the date it is sent, and does not need to be witnessed.4

The absence of a consent to nomination for a candidate on a party list does not invalidate a party list’s nomination. If a consent form from a particular candidate on the list is not submitted by 4pm, 23 working days before the poll you, if you are also the RRO, must remove the person from the list.5