Elected Member Briefing - Statutory review of polling places and districts

About this briefing note

Report by: Scott Walker, Election Manager

Date: 26 September 2023

Subject: Polling District and Places 2023

Details

Purpose

 To advise elected members of the plans and consultation process for the statutory review of polling districts and polling places across the Perth & Kinross Council area.

Briefing Information 

Background

Under the Representation of the People Act 1983, the Council has a duty to divide its area into polling districts and to designate a polling place for each district.

The following definitions may be helpful when reading the report and Appendices.

"Polling districts" are geographical electoral areas into which wards and constituencies may be sub-divided.

"Polling places" are the buildings or areas designated by the council where electors in a polling district go to vote in person.

"Polling stations" are the number of issuing desks in the building or area that is the designated polling place.

The Electoral Administration Act 2006, as amended, introduced a duty on all local authorities in Great Britain to review their polling districts and polling places at least once every five years.

 Under section 18C of the Representation of the People Act 1983, the next compulsory review must be undertaken within a 16-month window between 1 October 2023 and 31 January 2025.

The intention of the legislation was that reviews would be completed by the January before a UK parliamentary general election.  However, since the repeal of the Fixed Term Parliaments Act 2011, there is no longer any certainty as to when the next general election will be.

The Dissolution and Calling of Parliament Act 2022 means:

• the UK Parliament can be dissolved by the King on request of the Prime Minister, at any time within the 5 years of the life of the Parliament.
•  the next general election must take place before Tuesday 28 January 2025, but it could happen at any point before then.
• there is no longer a link between the timing of the compulsory polling district and places review falling in a 16-month period ending 3 months before a scheduled general election.

 In addition, the Boundary Commission for Scotland is currently undertaking a review of parliamentary constituency boundaries.  The Commission has now published its final recommendations, and Orders for the new parliamentary constituency boundaries will be made by 1 November 2023.

 Once the Orders for new parliamentary constituencies have been made, the new boundaries will be used for the next general election.

 If a parliamentary by-election is called in the meantime, it would be run on existing boundaries.

These issues mean it is important that the polling district and places review is carried out as early as possible, so that Perth & Kinross Council has agreed polling districts and places to be used for the next parliamentary election and has a polling scheme in place which reflects the new constituencies.

Timing of the polling district and places review

As highlighted above, it is important to complete the review as soon as possible, so the polling districts and places for future elections can be agreed in time for the next general election.

Section 18C of the Representation of the People Act 1983 does not allow the review to commence before 1 October 2023.

The compulsory polling district and places review will commence on Thursday 5 October 2023.

Review Timetable

The review cannot commence before 1 October 2023.

It would be desirable for any changes in polling districts to be reflected in the electoral register published on 1 December 2023.  However, due to the Council meeting timetable, this is not possible.

This means that the electoral register will need to be republished to take account of any changes to polling districts.

This is the timetable for the review of polling districts and places.

Review Process - Legal Requirements

The process for a polling district and places review is set out in Schedule A1, Representation of the People Act 1983.

The Council must:

• publish a notice of the holding of a review,
• consult the Returning Officer (RO) for every parliamentary constituency which is wholly or partly in its area,
• publish all representations made by an RO within 30 days of receipt by posting a copy of them at the local authority's office and in at least one conspicuous place in their area and, if the authority maintains a website, by placing a copy on the authority's website,
• seek representations from such persons as it thinks have particular expertise in relation to access to premises or facilities for persons who have different forms of disability. Such persons must have an opportunity to make representations and to comment on the representations made by the RO(s).

On completion of the review, the Council must give reasons for its decisions and publish:

• all correspondence sent to an RO in connection with the review,
• all correspondence sent to any person whom the authority thinks has particular expertise in relation to access to premises or facilities for persons who have different forms of disability,
• all representations made by any person in connection with the review,
• the minutes of any meeting held by the council to consider any revision to the designation of polling districts or polling places within its area as a result of the review,
• details of the designation of polling districts and polling places within the local authority area as a result of the review,
• details of the places where the results of the review have been published.

Preparatory work

Although the formal review cannot start until 2 October 2023, a range of preparatory activity has already been carried out.

This includes:

• Reading the final proposals published by the Boundary Commission 2nd understanding the impact for this area,
• Contacting Returning Officers and Elections Teams in neighbouring authorities which will be sharing our constituency,
• Liaising with electoral software suppliers about structuring the electoral register to accommodate boundary changes,
• Preparing data for the start of the review (electorate figures, turnout from previous elections)
• Obtaining detailed up to date maps to enable accurate designation of polling district boundaries,
• Identifying organisations with a special interest/expertise in disabled access to consult

Preliminary review

The Elections Team have also carried out a preliminary review of the current polling districts and places in the Perth & Kinross Council area to assess their suitability.

This involved:

• Compiling details of current polling places with a summary of their suitability
• Checking the continued availability of polling places
• Reviewing feedback from stakeholders at previous elections
• Identifying potential alternative buildings where appropriate
• Ensuring that polling places can support the requirements of the Elections Act, for example with sufficient space to undertake Voter ID checks, and to accommodate equipment to assist disabled voters

Preparing council proposals and drafting (A)RO comments, including explanations for "no changes"

The output from this is set out in Appendix 1.

Implementing Parliamentary Boundary Changes

The Boundary Commission for Scotland recently undertook a review of parliamentary constituency boundaries.  They have published their final recommendations, and Orders for the new parliamentary constituency boundaries will be made by 1 November 2023.

Once the Orders for new parliamentary constituencies have been made, the new boundaries will be used for the next general election.

If a parliamentary by election is called in the meantime, it would be run on existing boundaries.

This means the Register of Electors needs to be able to reflect both the existing and new constituencies.

Work can be done to prepare the register in the background before then, so that once the Order for the new parliamentary constituencies is made, the register can be re-arranged or adapted as necessary to give effect to the Order. 

This can be achieved by creating future administrative areas within the Election Management system. The Electoral Services Manager, on behalf of the Electoral Registration Officer, will liaise with the software supplier to implement this. This work can be started once the final parliamentary constituency proposals are published.

The impact of the new boundaries on PPDs is set out in Appendix 2.

Implementing polling district changes

The polling district and places review and parliamentary boundary changes may result in new polling districts being created or existing polling district boundaries being amended.

If the Council makes any alterations to the polling districts in its area, the Electoral Registration Officer (ERO) must amend the register of electors accordingly (Section 18A (5) Representation of the People Act 1983).

The changes to the register take effect on the date the ERO publishes a notice stating that the adaptations have been made.

Where polling districts have been created to support the implementation of boundary changes, the register will need to be constructed in a way that is capable of reflecting the existing and new boundaries. This is to ensure that any parliamentary by elections can be run on the existing boundaries, until the new boundaries come into force.

This can be achieved by making any parts of existing electoral areas that will be split when the new boundaries come into effect into separate polling districts or merged with neighbouring polling districts.

 Publishing the register to reflect existing and new boundaries will also help to enable current elected members and MPs to receive the parts of the register that they are entitled to, while allowing individuals to be supplied with the relevant parts of the register once they become a candidate for an election.

This may mean that, for administrative purposes, there are two versions of the polling scheme. Once the boundaries are in fully in force, any polling districts which have been split simply to allow elections to be run on either set of boundaries, can be re-merged.