{
  "url": "https://openlegislation.uk/senedd-cymru-representation-of-the-people-order-2025/schedule-2/paragraph-15",
  "json_url": "https://openlegislation.uk/senedd-cymru-representation-of-the-people-order-2025/schedule-2/paragraph-15.json",
  "legislation": "wsi/2025/864",
  "legislation_title": "The Senedd Cymru (Representation of the People) Order 2025",
  "legislation_url": "https://openlegislation.uk/senedd-cymru-representation-of-the-people-order-2025",
  "path": "schedule/2/paragraph/15",
  "kind": "paragraph",
  "number": "15",
  "heading": "Lost postal ballot papers",
  "text": "(1) Where a postal voter (“P”) claims either to have lost or not to have received—\n(a) P’s postal ballot paper,\n(b) P’s postal voting statement, or\n(c) one or more of the envelopes supplied for their return,\nby the fourth day before the day of the poll, P may apply, whether in person or otherwise, to the returning officer for a replacement ballot paper.\n(2) An application by P under sub-paragraph (1) must include evidence of P’s identity.\n(3) Where P exercises the entitlement conferred by sub-paragraph (1), P must return the following items which P has received and which have not been lost—\n(a) the documents referred to in sub-paragraph (1), and\n(b) where postal ballot papers for more than one election have been issued together, including under paragraph 2, all other ballot papers so issued.\n(4) Any postal ballot paper or postal voting statement returned in accordance with sub-paragraph (3) must be immediately cancelled.\n(5) As soon as practicable after cancelling those documents, the returning officer must make up those documents in a separate packet and must seal the packet.\n(6) If on any subsequent occasion additional documents are cancelled in accordance with this paragraph, the sealed packet must be opened and the additional cancelled documents included in it and the packet must then be again made up and sealed.\n(7) Subject to sub-paragraph (8) where the application is received by the returning officer before 5.00 p.m. on the day of the poll and the returning officer—\n(a) is satisfied as to P’s identity, and\n(b) has no reason to doubt that P has lost or did not receive the original postal ballot paper or the original postal voting statement or one or more of the envelopes provided for their return,\nthe returning officer must issue another postal ballot paper, or other postal ballot papers.\n(8) The returning officer may refuse to issue another postal ballot paper if the returning officer has reason to doubt that the postal voter has either lost or has not received the original postal ballot paper or the original postal voting statement or one or more of the envelopes provided for their return.\n(9) Where the application is received by the returning officer after 5.00 p.m. on the day before the day of the poll, the returning officer may only issue another postal ballot paper or other postal ballot papers, if P applies in person.\n(10) The returning officer must enter in a list kept for the purpose (“the list of lost postal ballot papers”)—\n(a) the name and number of the elector as stated in the register or, in the case of an elector who has an anonymous entry, the elector’s electoral number alone,\n(b) the number of the postal ballot paper which has been lost or not received and of its replacement issued under this paragraph, and\n(c) where the postal voter is a proxy, the proxy’s name and address.\n(11) Paragraphs 5, 6, 7, 9, except sub-paragraph (2), 10 to 12, and subject to sub-paragraph (12) of this paragraph, 13, apply to the issue of a replacement postal ballot paper under sub-paragraph (7).\n(12) Instead of delivering a replacement postal ballot paper in accordance with paragraph 13, where P applies in person—\n(a) by 5.00 p.m. on the day before the day of the poll, the returning officer may hand a replacement postal ballot paper to P, or\n(b) after 5.00 p.m. on the day before the day of the poll, the returning officer may only hand a replacement postal ballot paper to P.\n(13) Where the returning officer issues another postal ballot paper or other postal ballot papers, under sub-paragraph (7), the ballot paper which has been lost or not received must be cancelled and will have no effect.\n(14) When dealing with lost postal ballot papers the returning officer must have regard to any guidance issued by the Electoral Commission for the purposes of this paragraph.",
  "extent": "E+W",
  "status": null,
  "version": "current",
  "annotations": [
    {
      "type": "I",
      "label": "I1",
      "text": "Sch. 2 para. 15 in force at 18.7.2025, see art. 1(2)"
    }
  ],
  "outstanding_effects": [],
  "provenance": {
    "source": "legislation.gov.uk",
    "source_url": "https://www.legislation.gov.uk/wsi/2025/864/schedule/2/paragraph/15",
    "retrieved_at": "2026-11-14T03:35:52.324656+00:00"
  },
  "licence": "Open Government Licence v3.0",
  "licence_url": "https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/",
  "attribution": "Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives."
}