Guidance for Returning Officers administering a Senedd election

As part of your plans for engaging with political parties, individual candidates and agents and supporting their participation in the elections, you will need to determine how information about local arrangements will be provided to them.

Local arrangements will include information on the dates, times and venues for the key election processes, including:

• postal vote issue and openings
• polling day
• equipment provided to polling stations to make voting easier for disabled voters
• the verification and count

Your briefing session(s) should also highlight any security arrangements that you have put in place in consultation with the police, including your plans to share candidate email/phone number contact detail with your local Force Elected-Official Adviser (FEOA) to help maintain candidate safety. You should advise candidates of how their contact details will be used and provide an opportunity to opt out if necessary. 

You should also invite your police single point of contact (SPOC) and FEOA to attend any briefing sessions, or to provide written material that you can provide to candidates and agents.

Additional security guidance for candidates and agents is available at Security guidance for elections - GOV.UK.

You should also cover what standards of behaviour you expect from supporters in the area of the polling place on polling day and during the verification and count.

The College of Policing Authorised Professional Practice have produced guidance on maintaining order and preventing undue influence outside polling stations. This document is designed to help the police think about how best to approach the issue of policing polling stations and offers some practical steps to help them reduce the likelihood of problems arising and deal with any that occur. Although it is aimed at the SPOC it may also be of use to you, particularly in communicating to candidates and agents the standards of behaviour expected from supporters in the area of the polling place. It should be read in conjunction with the campaigning outside polling places section of the Code of Conduct for Campaigners at Scottish Parliament, Senedd Cymru, Scottish council and Welsh local elections.