EA Bulletin: 408 England

We have updated  our RO guidance following changes introduced by the UK Government regarding security provisions for elected officials and candidates. 

Operation Ford and Force Elected-Official Advisors

The UK Government has  announced the launch of ‘Operation Ford’ to strengthen protective security measures for locally elected representatives.  Each Police Force now has at least one Force Elected-Official Advisor (FEOA). 

The FEOA will act as a dedicated named police contact for raising concerns and providing personal security briefings, regarding issues involving any elected officials including MPs and candidates in a UK Parliamentary General or by-election (Operation Bridger) or Police and Crime Commissioners, Mayors, local councillors, and candidates for those roles (Operation Ford).

An Operation Ford incident is any act committed against a serving elected official including local councillors, Mayor, Police & Crime Commissioner or a candidate for these elections (but excluding MPs and UK parliamentary candidates)  where it is reasonable to believe that the act has been committed with the intention of intimidating or harassing the elected official or candidate in connection with their official position or potential future position.

FEOA should not be contacted for non-crime related matters or for the reporting of incidents or crimes, these must be triaged and prioritised appropriately by local Police Control Rooms by contacting 999 in an emergency, 101 or online via www.police.uk. 

To help support the safety and security of everyone who wants to participate in elections, it is important that the police can proactively contact candidates to provide them with information and advice. ROs can help facilitate this by working with their FEOA and providing candidate contact details (email address and/or telephone numbers) to them as soon as possible after the close of nominations.

Whilst each RO will need to ensure that they have the correct data protection measures in place to support the sharing of such personal data and will need to discuss with their own local Data Protection Officer (DPO), the sharing of candidate data with police can be a legitimate use of the data held by the RO as part of their statutory duties. There is a lawful basis for sharing the data (article 6(1)(e) General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR)) and in our view it’s necessary and proportionate to share this data to fulfil the RO’s statutory functions of safely and properly conducting an election. 

Whilst your DPO will be able to advise on the specific implications to your own local data protection policies, it will be important to update your privacy notice accordingly and ensure that all candidates have the option to opt out of their data being shared. As well as updating your policies and documents as needed, you should ensure that candidates are aware of your plans to share their data with the FEOA through your candidate and agents briefings and any additional information packs you provide with nomination forms.

Our RO guidance and Data Protection Guidance have been updated to reflect both the new Operation Ford arrangements and our updated advice on the sharing of candidates details with police to support the safety and security of candidates and the election overall. As always, should you require any further advice on this, please contact your local commission team.

As set out in bulletin 407 England, we have been developing a new set of digital resources to support candidates and agents when standing for election.

We have published two new animated resources:

• ‘completing your nomination papers’ provides an overview of the forms to be completed at a local government election
• ‘home address form’ follows on from the main resource and focusses on the specific requirements of the home address form. This includes what candidates need to do to withhold their address from election material

These resources are intended to complement your briefings and written support to candidates and agents. Please share these links with prospective candidates and agents in your area as you see fit. Please note that these resources are intended for candidates at local government elections, including parish council elections, and are not suitable for candidates at Local Authority Mayoral or Combined (County) Authority Mayoral elections. We hope to produce more animations to support other types of election post May 2025.

These resources are the first in a new programme of work we want to deliver to help provide guidance in different formats. We are keen for feedback to help us refine and develop future resources. We will be seeking feedback on the resources in our post-poll surveys and will provide links to these in a future Bulletin as usual.

For the May 2025 elections, we are running the ‘polling station finder’ in partnership with Democracy Club. This tool helps ensure voters have access to accurate and timely information about how and where they can vote.

We need your updated polling station information to make sure voters head to the right polling station. Having this information easily available online should help to reduce the number of queries from voters looking for their polling place.  

If you have not done so already, providing your data is straightforward. You can export the data from your EMS and upload it using Democracy Club’s easy-to-use tool. Alternatively, you can email it to [email protected] .

Detailed instructions are available for each supplier, if you need them.  

Please send your polling station data as soon as possible, so we have enough time to add the information to our ‘polling station finder’ tool  

If you’d like to see the polling station finder on your own website, you can embed our election widget. 

In preparation for the May 2025 local government elections, the Electoral Commission are hosting a webinar for candidates and agents on Wednesday 5 March 12:00 - 13:30.  The webinar will provide an overview of the candidates and agents guidance. It is also an opportunity to gain essential information on nominations processes, postal vote handling and political finance laws. The session will contain practical hints and tips to support your understanding of your obligations and how to apply the law in practice.  

There will also be an opportunity to ask questions throughout the session. If you are aware of any potential candidates and agents who may benefit from attending this webinar please forward this information to them. If you would like to register, please complete this form.

If you have any questions about this event or would like further advice, please contact [email protected] .   

As highlighted in bulletin 406 England, we have reviewed and updated the Invitation to Register (ITR) forms.

The finalised forms have now been approved by the Secretary of State and have been shared with EMS suppliers.  

You can view our latest ITR forms on our website.

As mentioned in bulletin 396 England, these forms are prescribed in law, and as such both the content and the layout must not be changed by EROs, Local Authorities or parties

Thank you for your patience with these updates. 

Welcome to your Vote Week is taking place Monday 10 March to Sunday 16 March 2025.  If you haven’t already, sign up now to Welcome to Your Vote Week 2025  to take part.

The week is about supporting young people to develop the knowledge and confidence needed to cast their vote and discover other ways to get involved in democracy.  

We’re excited to share our brand-new resources with you ahead of Welcome to Your Vote Week.

Mis- and disinformation resources

We have partnered with Shout Out UK to create a series of short activities and lesson plans. These aim to increase young people's knowledge and understanding of mis- and disinformation. This includes how to identify it and where to find trustworthy information about politics, democracy and elections.

Mis- and disinformation resources for ages 7-11

Mis- and disinformation resources for ages 11-14

Mis- and disinformation resources for ages 14-16

Local democracy activities  

We have also partnered with Simple Politics to create a series of short activities. These are  designed to support those aged 16-18 to learn more about local politics and feel confident to engage with democracy.

You can access our local democracy activities for 16-18 year olds here.

Promotional materials  

There are a range of promotional materials available to help you spread the word about Welcome to Your Vote Week. These include social media graphics, template posts and posters, which you can download here. 

Information for young people  

Check out our information and tips for young people on how to get involved with Welcome to Your Vote Week.

You can also access year-round resources for educators and young people on democracy, voting and elections on our website. 

If you have any questions or want to get in touch with us, please contact [email protected] .