Commentary on Sections Part 3: Elections Section 24: Candidate at parliamentary election may withhold home address from publication
117.This section makes amendments to the parliamentary elections rules (PERs), found at Schedule 1 to the 1983 Act, to allow candidates at a parliamentary election to choose that their home address does not appear on the ballot paper at the election. Under rule 6 of the PERs (concerning the nomination of candidates), candidates at a parliamentary election are nominated by completing the nomination paper. The PERs currently require the candidate’s home address to be included on the nomination paper. Under rule 14 (publication of statement of persons nominated), the returning officer will publish a statement showing the persons who have been nominated to stand at the election. The statement will include the names and addresses of the candidates as shown on their nomination papers. The names and addresses of the candidates on the statement of persons nominated are in turn transferred onto the ballot paper for the election.
118.Subsection (2) of section 24 amends rule 6 of the PERs to provide that the candidate’s nomination paper will no longer include the candidate’s home address in full. Instead, the nomination paper must be accompanied by a form known as the “home address form” which must show the candidate’s full names and home address in full. Provisions concerning the delivery of nomination papers to the returning officer will apply equally to the delivery of the home address form. On the home address form, the candidate may make a statement that he or she requires the home address not to be made public. If so, then the form must also state the constituency within which the candidate’s home address is situated, or if that address is outside the United Kingdom, the country within which it is situated.
119.Subsection (3) amends rule 11 of the PERs (right to attend nomination) to provide that those specified persons who are entitled to attend the proceedings during the time for delivery of nomination papers or for making objections to them (that is, other candidates, agents and election observers from the Electoral Commission) also have the right to inspect and object to the contents of the home address form. Otherwise, new rule 11(5) prohibits the returning officer from disclosing the home address form, except for some other purpose authorised by law.
120.Subsection (4) amends rule 12 of the PERs (validity of nomination papers) to provide that the provisions in this rule concerning the nomination paper and the candidate’s consent to it, also apply to the home address form. As a result, if a candidate fails to return a home address form or to complete it in accordance with rule 6, then the returning officer may hold the candidate’s nomination to be invalid.
121.Subsection (5) inserts new provision into rule 14 of the PERs (publication of statement of persons nominated). The effect is that where a candidate has stated on the home address form that he or she does not wish his or her home address to be made public, the information provided about the constituency (or country) within which the candidate’s home address is situated will appear on the statement of persons nominated, instead of his or her home address.
122.Subsection (6) also inserts new provisions into rule 14 of the PERs to address the situation where two or more candidates have the same or similar names, each of them wishes to withhold their home address and their home addresses are in the same constituency (or country). Where, in the returning officer’s opinion, these circumstances are likely to cause confusion (for example where both are also independent candidates), the returning officer may cause any of their particulars to be shown on the statement of persons nominated with such amendments or additions as the officer thinks appropriate, in order to reduce the likelihood of confusion.
123.Subsection (7) inserts a new rule 53A in the PERs (destruction of home addresses), which provides that the returning officer shall destroy each candidate’s home address form on the next working day following the 21st day after the election (being the deadline for submission of an election petition based on the contents of a home address form) or the conclusion either of proceedings arising from any petition submitted during that period or any appeal resulting from such proceedings.