Guidance for Returning Officers administering a Senedd 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 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 involved 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 and the SPOC, outlining the division of responsibilities so that there is clarity about each other’s roles, clear lines of communication and agreement 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. 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 even be 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 identified in addition to any general fraud detection plans

Specific 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.

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. 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.