Representation of the People Act 1983

Section 53.

SCHEDULE 2U.K. Provisions Which May be Contained in Regulations as to Registration Etc.

1(1)Provisions prescribing the arrangements to be made for the carrying out of his registration duties by a registration officer for part of a constituency, where the constituency is not coterminous with or wholly situated in a district [F1, Welsh county or county borough] or London borough.

(2)Provisions authorising a registration officer to require persons to give information required for the purpose of his registration duties [F2or to make declarations of any prescribed description as to matters relevant to their entitlement to be registered.]

[F3(3)Provisions authorising a registration officer, where—

(a)he has so required any person registered in one of his registers to give him information, or to make any declaration, for the purpose of enabling him to determine whether the person is entitled to be so registered, and

(b)the person has not within the prescribed period complied with that requirement in a manner which the officer considers satisfactory (or at all),

to remove the person’s name from the register.

(4)Provisions authorising a registration officer to inspect, for the purpose of his registration duties, records kept (in whatever form) by—

(a)any local or public authority of any prescribed description, or

(b)any person providing services to, or authorised to exercise any function of, any such authority,

and to make copies of information contained in such records.

[F4(4A)Provision for the disclosure (otherwise than by virtue of sub-paragraph (4) above) by the authority responsible for national insurance numbers (“the relevant authority”) to the Chief Electoral Officer for Northern Ireland, following a request by him, of—

(a)the national insurance number recorded in respect of an individual specified or described in the request, or of the fact that the individual is not recorded as having a national insurance number, and

(b)in the case of such an individual recorded as having a national insurance number, any name and former name, date of birth, sex and address as recorded by the relevant authority in respect of the individual in question.

(4B)Provision authorising the relevant authority to charge fees to the Chief Electoral Officer for Northern Ireland to cover the expenses of the relevant authority in complying with such requests.]

(5)Provisions made under sub-paragraph (4) [F5or (4A)] above shall have effect despite any statutory or other restriction on the disclosure of information.]

2U.K. Provisions imposing on registration officers the duty of requiring persons to give information required for the purpose of the officer’s duty under section 3(1) of the M1Juries Act 1974.

[F62AU.K.Provisions requiring registration officers to remind persons registered in pursuance of [F7declarations or applications of any prescribed description of the need to make fresh declarations or applications in order for them to remain registered.]]

3U.K. Provisions laying down a timetable for the preparation of the register and other matters, and providing that notices and other documents received by the registration officer out of time may be or shall be disregarded either altogether or for the purposes of a particular register or election.

[F93AU.K.Provisions as to the form and contents of applications for registration, including provisions as to any declarations to be made in connection with them.]

[F11(2)Provisions as to the manner in which overseas electors’ declarations and applications from persons making such declarations, are to be transmitted to the registration officer.]

5(1)Provisions as to the evidence which shall or may be required, or be deemed sufficient or conclusive evidence, of a person’s service declaration having ceased to be in force.

[F12(1A)Provisions as to the evidence which shall or may be required, or be deemed sufficient or conclusive evidence, of a person satisfying any of the requirements for qualifying as an overseas elector in respect of any constituency.]

(2) Provisions as to the evidence of age or nationality which may be required in connection with a person’s registration otherwise than as a service voter or with his appointment as a proxy.

(3)Provisions requiring any fee payable in connection with the making for the purpose of the regulations of any statutory declaration to be paid by the registration officer.

F13(4). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

[F145A(1)Provision requiring applications under [F15paragraph 3 or 4 of Schedule 4 to the Representation of the People Act 2000 or]section 6 or 7 of the Representation of the People Act 1985 to be attested and limiting the number of such applications that a person may attest.U.K.

(2)Provision requiring a person applying under [F15paragraph 4 of Schedule 4 to the Representation of the People Act 2000 or]section 7 of the Representation of the People Act 1985 to do so in person, producing a document of a prescribed description.

(3)Provision as to the evidence which shall or may be required, or be deemed sufficient or conclusive evidence, in connection with a person’s application to vote by proxy or to vote by post as elector or as proxy.

(4)Provision authorising or requiring registration officers—

(a)to make inquiries of persons included in the record kept under [F15paragraph 3(4) of Schedule 4 to the Representation of the People Act 2000 or]section 6(3) of the Representation of the People Act 1985 for the purpose of determining whether there has been a material change of circumstances; and

(b)to treat failure to respond to such inquiries as sufficient evidence of such a change.]

6U.K. Provisions as to the cases in which [F16an application] or objection may be determined by the registration officer without a hearing, and as to a person’s right in any such cases to make written representations to him.

7U.K. Provisions authorising a registration officer to require any person’s evidence at a hearing before him to be given on oath and to administer oaths for the purpose.

[F178U.K.Provisions requiring the registration officer to prepare a special list of those persons entitled to be registered whose addresses are not required to be shown [F18in the register] or of any class of such persons, showing the addresses of the person concerned.]

F209U.K.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

[F2110(1)Provisions requiring a registration officer to prepare, in addition to the version of the register which he is required to prepare by virtue of the other provisions of this Act (“the full register”), a version of the register which omits the names and addresses of registered electors by or on behalf of whom requests have been made to have their names and addresses excluded from that version of it (“the edited register”).

(2)Provisions specifying a form of words to be used by a registration officer for the purpose of—

(a)explaining to persons registered or applying to be registered, or persons acting on behalf of such persons, the purposes for which the full register and the edited register may each be used, and

(b)ascertaining whether the exclusion of their names and addresses from the edited register is requested by or on behalf of such persons.]

[F2210AU.K.Provisions requiring copies of the full register and other documents, or prescribed parts of them, to be available for inspection by the public at such places as may be prescribed.]

[F2310B(1)Provisions authorising or requiring a registration officer—U.K.

(a)to supply to such persons as may be prescribed copies of the full register and other documents, or prescribed parts of them, whether free of charge or on payment of a prescribed fee;

(b)to supply to any persons copies of the edited register, or any prescribed part of it, on payment of a prescribed fee.

(2)Provisions specifying, in relation to any description of persons prescribed by regulations made in pursuance of sub-paragraph (1)(a) above, the purposes for which copies supplied to such persons under such regulations, or information contained in them, may be used whether by such persons or by employees or other persons authorised by them in accordance with regulations to have access to such copies or information contained in them.

(3)Without prejudice to the generality of sub-paragraph (1) above or paragraph 11A below, regulations made in pursuance of sub-paragraph (1) may contain any such provisions as are authorised by paragraph 11A.]

[F2411(1)Provisions imposing prohibitions or restrictions relating to the extent (if any) to which—U.K.

(a)persons inspecting the full register in accordance with regulations made in pursuance of paragraph 10A above may make copies of the register;

(b)persons to whom copies of the full register are supplied (whether in accordance with regulations made in pursuance of paragraph 10B above or in accordance with any other provision made by or under an Act) may—

(i)supply those copies, or otherwise disclose any information contained in them, to other persons, or

(ii)make use of any such information otherwise than for any purposes specified in such regulations or (as the case may be) for which the copies have been supplied in accordance with any such provision.

(2)Provisions imposing, in relation to persons—

(a)to whom copies of the full register have been supplied, or information contained in such copies has been disclosed, in accordance with regulations made in pursuance of this paragraph, or

(b)who otherwise have access to such copies or information,

prohibitions or restrictions corresponding to those which may be imposed by virtue of sub-paragraph (1) above.

(3)Provisions imposing, in relation to persons involved in the preparation of the full register, prohibitions with respect to supplying copies of the full register and disclosing information contained in it.

(4)In this paragraph any reference to the full register includes a reference to any part of it.]

[F2511A(1)Provisions authorising or requiring registration officers who are data users to supply data, or documents containing information extracted from data and in such form as may be prescribed, to such persons as may be prescribed on payment of a prescribed fee.

(2)In this paragraph [F26data controller] and “data” have the same meanings as in section 1 of the Data Protection Act 1984.]

12 Provisions as to [F27the arrangements to be made in relation to the issue and receipt of, and for subsequently dealing with, ballot papers for postal voting, including provisions—

(a)authorising replacement ballot papers to be issued in any prescribed circumstances;

(b)as to the proceedings in connection with the issue and receipt of ballot papers and, in particular—

(i)the persons who are to be entitled, or may be allowed, to attend, and

(ii)the rights and obligations of persons attending;

(c)]as to the steps to be taken to ensure the secrecy of the voting and the safe custody (before and after the count) of the ballot papers returned and other documents.

13(1)Provisions [F29making it an offence (punishable on summary conviction by a fine not exceeding level 3 on the standard scale) for a person—]

(a)[F30to have] failed to comply with, or given false information in pursuance of, any such requisition of the registration officer as is mentioned in paragraph 1 or paragrapn 2 above.

(b)[F30to have], without lawful authority, destroyed, mutilated, defaced or removed any notice published by the registration officer in connection with his registration duties, or any copies of a document which have been made available for inspection in pursuance of those duties.

[F31(1A)Provisions making it an offence (punishable on summary conviction by a fine not exceeding level 5 on the standard scale)—

(a)for a person to contravene any regulations made in pursuance of paragraph 11 above or to do so in any prescribed circumstances, or

(b)where such a contravention has occurred on the part of a person in the employment, or otherwise under the direction or control, of a company or other organisation, for—

(i)a director of the company, or

(ii)a person concerned with the management of the organisation,

to have failed to take such steps as it was reasonable for him to take to secure the operation of procedures designed to prevent, so far as reasonably practicable, the occurrence of such contraventions on the part of such persons.]

(2)Any other provisions incidental or supplemental to those mentioned in the foregoing paragraphs of this Schedule.