Part 1: Administration and Conduct of Elections Assistance with voting for persons with disabilities Section 9: Assistance with voting for persons with disabilities
This section amends some of the provisions of the Parliamentary Elections Rules in relation to assistance with voting provided to persons with disabilities.
	Subsection (2) amends rule 29 of Schedule 1 to the RPA 83, substituting the requirement for Returning Officers in England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland to provide each polling station with a device for voters with sight loss with a broader requirement to provide such equipment as it is reasonable to provide for the purposes of enabling, or making it easier for, voters with disabilities - including those who have sight loss - to vote independently in the manner directed by rule 37 of the Schedule, which includes the procedure to mark the ballot paper secretly. "Secretly" here refers to which candidate(s) or options(s) an individual has voted for, and not the fact that they have voted. Subsection (2) also introduces a requirement for the Electoral Commission to give guidance to support Returning Officers in carrying out the new, broader requirement to provide assistive equipment, and places a duty on Returning Officers to have regard to that guidance. Because of the definition of disability in section 202 of the RPA 1983, the provisions in this section also include a person who has a short term inability to vote in the manner directed by rule 37.
	The requirements under this provision do not affect any other statutory duty imposed on a Returning Officer under the Equality Act 2010, or the Disability Discrimination Act 1995.
	Subsection (3) amends rule 39 (voting by persons with disabilities) of Schedule 1 by changing the qualifying requirement for a person to assist a voter with a disability as their ‘companion’ at the polling station. . As a result of this change, a companion is no longer required to be someone either entitled to vote in the election or a close family member of the voter who has attained the age of 18, but can be anyone aged18 or over.
	Subsection (4) amends the form of declaration to be made by the companion of a voter with disabilities, which is contained in the Appendix of Forms of Schedule 1 to the RPA 1983, to reflect the updated qualifying requirements.
	Subsection (5) amends PPERA to introduce a requirement for the Electoral Commission to report on the steps taken by Returning Officers to assist voters with disabilities to vote at relevant elections. This includes UK Parliamentary elections, Police and Crime Commissioner elections and Northern Ireland Assembly elections, where the Electoral Commission is required to report, and UK Parliamentary and Police and Crime Commissioner by-elections where the Electoral Commission has discretion over reporting. The requirement for the Electoral Commission to report on certain polls and the discretion to report on others is provided by section 5 of PPERA.