Guidance for Petition Officers

You will need to put arrangements in place for the printing and issuing of postal signing packs in accordance with the regulations and in a similar way as you would for postal votes at an election.

The postal signing packs must include: 

• a postal signing sheet
• a postal petition statement1   
• an outgoing envelope2
• an envelope marked ‘A’ for the completed signing sheet
• an envelope marked ‘B’ – the covering envelope for the return of the completed postal petition statement and envelope 'A’.3  

You may also provide additional information, for example, translations in Braille, in other languages or graphical instructions.4  

You will need to dispatch your postal signing data to your printers and follow similar quality assurance and contract management processes as you would when arranging the printing of postal votes at an election. 

You will need to ensure that any additions to the postal signers list after the initial submission of data to your printers are included on a subsequent print run. 

Petition notices must be delivered to electors by post (and not by hand), and outgoing postage must be prepaid.5  

Return postage must also be prepaid on all covering envelopes where the address provided by the postal signer for the receipt of the signing sheet is within the United Kingdom.6  

You must ensure that the return of the postal signing sheet and postal petition statement is free of charge to the postal signer.7 For postal signing sheets sent to overseas addresses, you could arrange with Royal Mail for an international business response licence to be used on all return envelopes included in postal signing packs which are sent to overseas addresses.

An anonymous elector’s petition notice must be sent in a covering envelope that does not disclose that the person is registered anonymously.8

As at elections, you must use a prescribed corresponding number list when issuing postal packs.9   

When to issue postal signing packs

Postal signing packs must be issued at the following times, and must be issued as soon as reasonably practicable:10  

• between one and three working days before the start of the petition signing period
• on the 10th and 20th working day after the start of the signing period
• by the eighth working day before the last day of the signing period 

The ERO(s) for your constituency must supply you, as soon as practicable after 5pm on the sixth day before the last day of the signing period, with the absent signers lists.11  If you are not also the ERO, you must liaise with them to obtain the postal signers lists to enable you to issue the postal signing packs within the set timings above. You should put arrangements in place to obtain and utilise updated absent signing data so that you can carry out subsequent issues. 

Reissuing spoilt and lost signing packs

You must follow the procedure for reissuing spoilt and lost signing packs in accordance with the regulations and as you would for postal votes at an election.

Spoilt signing packs

If a person spoils their postal signing sheet or the postal petition statement, they can obtain a replacement pack up until five hours before the end of the signing period.12  

Before a replacement can be issued the spoilt postal signing sheet or spoilt postal petition statement, along with the remaining stationery, must be returned to you.13

If the request for a replacement pack is made after 5pm on the day before the last day of the signing period, the replacement pack may only be issued if the spoilt documents are returned by hand. In such cases, the issue of a replacement can also only be made by hand. 

Lost / not received signing packs

If a person claims to have lost or not to have received their postal signing sheet or the postal petition statement, or their envelopes ‘A’ and/or ‘B’, it is possible for a replacement pack to be issued from four working days before the last day of the signing period.14  

If some parts of the postal signing pack have not been lost or not received, the person must return the documents that they do have, so that you can cancel them.15  

If the request for a replacement pack is made after 5pm on the day before the last day of the signing period, the replacement pack may only be issued if the person applies in person. In such cases, the issue of a replacement can also only be made by hand. 

You must reissue a postal signing pack if you are satisfied as to the postal signer’s identity and have no reason to doubt that they have lost or did not receive their original pack. 

Cancelling postal signing packs

During the six week signing period, there may be circumstances where a person you have already sent a postal signing sheet to subsequently applies to the ERO to cancel or change their absent signing arrangements, before the deadline for changes to be able to take effect at the petition. In that case, the ERO will notify you and you must immediately cancel any postal signing sheet that has been issued to such a person, and add the details to the cancelled signing sheet list.16