Regulation 17 Appointment of petition assistantsI1

United Kingdom

(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 F1paragraph (3A) of regulation 25 (questions to be put to persons signing the petition), paragraph (1E) of regulation 27 (signing procedure in England and Wales and Scotland) or paragraph (3) of regulation 28 (signing procedure in Northern Ireland) (including F2those paragraphs as applied by regulation 29 (signing sheets endorsed by petition clerk) or regulation 30 (tendered signing sheets)).

F3(c)

resolve doubts over identity as mentioned in paragraph (1F) of regulation 27 F4or paragraph (6A) of regulation 28 (including those paragraphs as applied by regulation 29 or regulation 30).

Annotations

Textual amendments

F1: Words in reg. 17(3)(b) inserted (16.1.2023) by The Voter Identification Regulations 2022 (S.I. 2022/1382), regs. 1(3), 71(a)(i) (with reg. 1(6)(7)) (which affecting provision is extended to N.I. (31.10.2023) by The Financial Services and Markets Act 2023 (Commencement No. 4 and Transitional and Saving Provisions) (Amendment) Regulations 2023 (S.I. 2023/1382), regs. 1(2), 13)
F2: Words in reg. 17(3)(b) substituted (16.1.2023) by The Voter Identification Regulations 2022 (S.I. 2022/1382), regs. 1(3), 71(a)(ii) (with reg. 1(6)(7)) (which affecting provision is extended to N.I. (31.10.2023) by The Financial Services and Markets Act 2023 (Commencement No. 4 and Transitional and Saving Provisions) (Amendment) Regulations 2023 (S.I. 2023/1382), regs. 1(2), 13)
F3: Reg. 17(3)(c) inserted (16.1.2023) by The Voter Identification Regulations 2022 (S.I. 2022/1382), regs. 1(3), 71(b) (with reg. 1(6)(7)) (which affecting provision is extended to N.I. (31.10.2023) by The Financial Services and Markets Act 2023 (Commencement No. 4 and Transitional and Saving Provisions) (Amendment) Regulations 2023 (S.I. 2023/1382), regs. 1(2), 13)
F4: Words in reg. 17(3)(c) substituted (31.10.2023) by The Representation of the People and Recall Petition (Northern Ireland) (Amendment) Regulations 2023 (S.I. 2023/1116), regs. 1(2), 15

Commencement

I1: Reg. 17 in force at 4.3.2016, see reg. 1

Footnotes

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