Commentary on Sections Part 2: Administration and Conduct of Elections etc Section 17: Review of polling districts and places in Great Britain
67.Section 17 makes provision about the timing of reviews of polling districts and places by local authorities in Great Britain. At present, section 18C of the 1983 Act provides that every polling place and every polling district must be reviewed at least once every four years. In light of the provisions in the Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011 that set Parliamentary terms to 5 year periods, and the new five year cycle for UK Parliamentary boundary reviews implemented by the Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Act 2011, section 17 amends section 18C of the 1983 Act to provide that a local authority must carry out and complete a review of all the polling districts and places in its area within the period of 16 months beginning with 1 October 2013, and the period of 16 months beginning with 1 October of every fifth year after that. This is so as to bring the reviews into line with the new cycles of Parliamentary terms and UK Parliamentary boundary reviews.
68.The section does not prevent a local authority carrying out a review of some or all of the polling districts or polling places in its area at other times.