Running electoral registration - Wales

Is the attestation valid?

Is the attestation valid?

When a complete attestation is received, you must assess whether the attestation is valid.

To do this, you should ask the following questions.

  • Is the attestor a ‘person of good standing in the community?
  • Is the attestor registered to vote in a local authority area in England or Wales?
  • Has the attestor signed fewer than two identity attestations since, whichever is the most recent, either the last publication of the annual register, or the attestor was first added to the register?

Good standing

There is no precise definition of good standing; however, for purposes of an attestation, you should consider it to mean someone who has credentials that can be checked and would suffer professional or reputational damage if they were to provide a false attestation. The list in the table below is not definitive but is intended to illustrate which professions could be described as of good standing:

Examples of professions which could be described as of good standing
  • accountant
  • airline pilot
  • articled clerk of a limited company
  • assurance agent of recognised company
  • bank/building society official
  • barrister
  • chairman/director of limited company
  • chiropodist
  • commissioner of oaths
  • civil servant (permanent)
  • dentist
  • director/manager of a VAT-registered charity
  • director/manager/personnel officer of a VAT-registered company
  • engineer (with professional qualifications)
  • financial services intermediary (e.g. a stockbroker or insurance broker)
  • fire service official
  • funeral director
  • insurance agent (full time) of a recognised company
  • journalist
  • Justice of the Peace
  • legal secretary (fellow or associate member of the Institute of Legal Secretaries and PAs)
  • licensee of public house
  • local government officer
  • manager/personnel officer (of a limited company)
  • medical professional
  • member, associate or fellow of a professional body
  • Merchant Navy officer
  • minister of a recognised religion (including Christian Science)
  • nurse (RGN and RMN)
  • officer of the armed services
  • optician
  • paralegal (certified paralegal, qualified paralegal or associate member of the Institute of Paralegals)
  • person with honours (an OBE or MBE, for example)
  • pharmacist
  • photographer (professional)
  • police officer
  • Post Office official
  • publically elected representative (MP, Councillor, MEP, etc)
  • president/secretary of a recognised organisation
  • Salvation Army officer
  • social worker
  • solicitor
  • surveyor
  • teacher, lecturer
  • trade union officer
  • travel agent (qualified)
  • valuer or auctioneer (fellows and associate members of the incorporated society)
  • Warrant Officers and Chief Petty Officers

It is important to note that an unemployed/retired person who is of good standing in the community is not precluded from attesting an application.

You must judge each attestation on its individual merits rather than apply a blanket policy.

You must assess whether the attestation satisfies the relevant requirements, by answering two further questions:

Is the attestor registered to vote in a local authority area in England or Wales?

If the applicant’s address is situated in a local authority in England or Wales, the attestor must be registered to vote in a local authority area in England or Wales.1

If the attestor’s address is in the same local authority area as the applicant, you should check your electoral register and your electoral management software to check that the attestor satisfies this condition.

If the attestor’s address is not in the same local authority area as the applicant, you should contact the attestor’s ERO to check if the attestor fulfils these conditions.

Has the attestor signed fewer than two identity attestations since either the last publication of the register or since the attestor was added to it, whichever is the most recent?

Attestors are limited to signing no more than two identity attestations in any one electoral year (normally from 1 December to 30 November), or since their entry was added to the register in that local authority area, whichever is the shortest period.

This allows the attestor’s ERO to confidently supply the required information without being required to account for attestations made whilst the attestor was registered elsewhere.

Election management software should record each time an elector has signed an identity attestation. Where the limit has been reached, you should reject the attestation for this reason. This does not prevent the applicant from seeking another identity attestation from a different elector. You should process identity attestations in the order they are received.

This means that if the attestor fulfils all the conditions, the identity attestation will be accepted, and so the attestor’s ERO will be able to record this against the elector’s record. This will then count towards this elector’s total allowable identity attestations, in case they sign another identity attestation in the future.

Last updated: 27 December 2023