Submission of Parliamentary Acting Returning Officer for the current Jarrow and South Shields Constituencies (HTML)

Introduction

1. As Acting Returning Officer for the above Parliamentary Constituencies, I am required by law to make representations to South Tyneside Council "the Council" in connection with the review of polling districts, places and stations the Council is conducting.

2. The Council must designate a polling place for each polling district. A polling place is the geographical area in which the polling station is located (for example the polling place is the building, while the polling station is the actual room within which voting takes place).

3. There were 68 designated polling places at the local government elections on 4 May 2023. Six places were portable units (port-a-cabins), ten places hosted 2 polling stations, one place hosted 3 polling stations.

Purpose and scope of the review

4. We must take account of the statutory rules set out in the Representation of the People Act 1983.  The Council must:

• seek to ensure that all electors in the constituency have such reasonable facilities for voting as are practicable in the circumstances,
• seek to ensure that as far as reasonable and practicable, polling places are accessible to all electors, including those who are disabled, and
• have regard to the accessibility needs of disabled persons.

5. The law states that facilities for voting must be reasonable and practicable. What this means in practice is a matter of judgment.  The Council has a duty to provide a reasonable level of provision but not to provide facilities in locations where it is impracticable to do so.

6. The Elections Act 2022 places new duties on Returning Officers:

•  to take all reasonable steps to provide equipment to support disabled voters to vote independently and in secret at the polling station, and in doing so to have regard to any relevant guidance issued by the Electoral Commission,
• to provide necessary private areas for photographic identification checks.

7. Polling stations need to be large enough to accommodate the additional staff required to undertake photographic evidence checks and reduce the risk of congestion and queues.

8. Some polling places, such as portable units (although not exclusively), can present difficulties in terms of accessibility.  It is also important to understand that not every area of the Borough has a fully accessible building that is convenient to all electors and in some cases the only alternative is an accessible building that may be slightly more remote, or on the other side of a busy road, for example.

9. We need to recognise the need to deliver a high-quality election service to all electors, whether they vote in person or by post. This means, amongst other things, that polling stations are properly equipped; they are under the supervision of trained staff; and that all necessary support and assistance is available from Polling Station Inspectors and the Election Team.

Other considerations

10. The numbers of electors voting in person in a polling station over recent years has fallen, although it is acknowledged that there is a considerable rise at a parliamentary election. The table below shows the pattern of voting in elections since 2019:

11. We must provide sufficient polling places to deal with the higher level of turnout at national election events, which could mean identifying buildings that could accommodate additional polling stations, if required. 

12. Several polling places are located in schools, and we are often asked if alternative locations can be found in order to avoid disruption to the school. We will work closely with schools to minimise this disruption and alternatives will be considered, however, Parliament has expressly empowered the (Acting) Returning Officer to use schools as polling places due to their central location and accessibility. Schools can also benefit; 'Citizenship' is now an established part of the school curriculum and using schools as polling stations provides an excellent opportunity to give practical lessons in this subject.

Conclusion

13. Having carefully considered all the issues it is my conclusion that the existing number of polling districts is more than sufficient to serve the electors in the Borough and there is no need to increase provision.

14. Where new housing developments are being built there may be the need to move the internal polling district boundaries to ensure voters living in new properties can vote at the most convenient polling station.

15. Where possible the locations of the existing polling places should be maintained, unless the current place is no longer available, or there is sufficient reason for change, for example poor accessibility.

16. We must avoid increasing the number of portable units as these are the least preferred option in terms of accessibility.

17. We need to take account of the need to accommodate an increased demand placed on our polling stations during combined and national elections and provide appropriate levels of staffing.

Jonathan Tew
(Acting) Returning Officer                                

Dated: October 2023

List of Polling Places

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Submission of Parliamentary Acting Returning Officer for the current Jarrow and South Shields Constituencies