Regulation 17 Appointment of petition assistants

(1)

The petition officer must appoint and pay a petition clerk to attend at each petition signing place and may appoint such persons as assistants to the petition clerk as the officer considers necessary for the purposes of the petition, but must not appoint any person who has been employed by or on behalf of an accredited campaigner in respect of the petition^f1.

(2)

The petition officer may preside at a petition signing place and the provisions of these Regulations relating to a petition clerk apply to a petition officer so presiding with the necessary modifications.

(3)

An assistant appointed to assist the petition clerk may do anything (including the asking of questions) these Regulations require or permit the petition clerk to do except—

(a)

order the arrest, exclusion or removal of any person from a petition signing place;

(b)

refuse to deliver a signing sheet under paragraph (3) of regulation 28 (signing procedure in Northern Ireland) (including that paragraph as applied by regulation 29 (signing sheets endorsed by petition clerk) and regulation 30 (tendered signing sheets)).

Annotations

Footnotes

f1: Accredited campaigner is defined in Part 5 of Schedule 3 to the Act.