The Electoral Registration Officer and Returning Officer Complaints Policy

The electoral registration officer (ERO) and the returning officer (RO) are officers of the council, although are not accountable to the council when

• Performing electoral registration duties
• Elections are open

It is important you know the integrity of the electoral process and understand how the whole the process is handled when the ERO and RO work outside of the council.

It is also important we meet corporate standards about electoral complaints.

Communicating with the ERO and RO

You will be able to communicate easily with the ERO and RO under the corporate standard, which includes

• Fully accessible meeting locations
• Privacy for individuals
• Translation and interpretation into other languages, Braille and large print
• Offering a sign language interpreter
  

We will also encourage equal access for people to complain including 

• In writing by letter, complaints form, fax or e-mail
• By phone through our customer services number
• In person at one of our one stop shops
• Through minicom and typetalk

Definition of a complaint

Any expression of dissatisfaction about our department, whether justified or not, requiring a response is our definition of a complaint including 

• The delay in providing a service
• Failure to provide a service
• A mistake made in the way we provided a service
• Failure to act in a proper way
• Provision of an unfair service
  

Not all matters lead to a formal response through the complaints procedure including

• Non-receipt of poll cards
• Non-receipt of postal votes

Making a complaint

Any local person can make a complaint including

• Residents
• Candidates
• Suppliers of services
• Community group
• People acting your behalf such as councillors, MPs and advocate

Complaints need to be made as quickly as possible.

Recording complaints

The customer service centre (CSC) plays an important role in recording queries and complaints during the election period.

Frequent calls include non-delivery of poll cards, although poll cards are not required to vote and the caller will be given details of their nearest polling station. The number of calls received about non-receipt of poll cards is recorded and can be compared year on year.

The customer response management (CRM) and business warehouse (BW) processes enable reports to be generated based on physical locations, ensuring potential problems are identified quickly such as

• Non-delivery of postal votes in a particular area information being given to CSC
• Giving residents every opportunity to apply for a replacement postal vote

Stages in the complaint process

We operate a three stage complaints process which gives you the right to have your complaint reviewed at a senior level should your complaint not be resolved to your satisfaction.

Stage one

The complaint will be investigated by the electoral services section. The service manager will approve the response in order to ensure consistency of approach. If the complaint is about the manager, the head of democratic services will handle the complaint.

Stage two

Should you be dissatisfied with the outcome of the stage one, your complaint will be referred to the head of democratic services for any issues relating to the function of the electoral registration officer or to the returning officer for all election-related matters.

Stage three

If you are still dissatisfied with the outcome of your complaint, the matter will be referred to the electoral registration officer for any issues relating to their area of responsibility.

If the matter relates to an election-related issue, a petition will be launched. The petition will be heard by the election court and must be launched within 21 days of the election. You will also be advised to seek independent legal advice.

The three stage complaints procedure will be published and made available through our corporate website.

Please note, the Local Government Ombudsman does not have jurisdiction over the ERO or the RO.

Response timescale

We will acknowledge receipt of the complaint within three working days. In our acknowledgement we will provide you with our full contact details and the deadline date for our reply.

We will respond to the complaint within ten working days of receipt. If your complaint has escalated to stage two or three, we will respond in 15 working days.

If we are unable to respond within the time scale we will send a holding response, within ten working days of receiving the complaint and give a new deadline for our reply.

Actioning complaints

The electoral services manager will make sure any necessary actions are carried out should your complaint highlight the need for

• A working practice to be introduced
• New procedure or policy to be introduced
• An existing procedure to be revised

Policy review

This policy will be reviewed annually by the ERO and RO.

Contact us

Electoral services
Tel: 020 7525 7373
Fax: 020 7525 7614
electoralenquiries@southwark.gov.uk
Central House
Town Hall
Peckham Road
London
SE5 8UB