Commentary on provisions of Act Section 1: Amendment of the Representation of the People Act 1983
This section inserts new section 62C into the RPA 1983.
	Subsection (1) of new section 62C makes it an offence at UK parliamentary elections and local elections in England for a person to be with another person at a polling booth, with the intention of influencing that other person to vote in a particular way or to refrain from voting.
	Subsection (2) of new section 62C makes it an offence at UK parliamentary elections and local elections in England for a person to be near a polling booth when another person is at that booth, with the intention of influencing that other person to vote in a particular way or to refrain from voting.
	Subsection (3) of new section 62C defines certain terms and makes provision for the purposes of new section 62C. Subsection (3)(b) provides that a person helping a voter under rule 39 of the Parliamentary Election Rules, Schedule 1 to the RPA 1983, or any other legislation, is not influencing the voter to vote in a particular way or to refrain from voting. Companions or presiding officers, where they are acting in accordance with the provisions on assisting a voter will not commit the offence. Subsection (3)(c) provides that under new section 62C, a person may be near one polling booth while at a different polling booth. This means the offences will capture a person in or near a polling booth seeking to influence another voter in a different polling booth.
	Under subsection (4), those found guilty of the new summary offences will be liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 6 months, to a fine (which is unlimited in England and Wales, and not exceeding level 5 on the standard scale in Scotland and Northern Ireland), or to both.
	Subsection (5) of new section 62C provides that section 62C does not apply to local elections in Scotland or Wales.