40.—(1) The returning officer must give to the counting agents notice in writing of the time and place of the counting of the votes.
(2) No person other than—
(a)the returning officer and his or her staff;
(b)the candidates and their spouses or civil partners; and
(c)the counting agents,
may be present at the counting of the votes, unless permitted by the returning officer to attend.
(3) A person not entitled to attend at the counting of the votes must not be permitted to do so by the returning officer unless he or she is satisfied that the efficient counting of the votes will not be impeded.
(4) The returning officer must give the counting agents all such reasonable facilities for overseeing the proceedings, and all such information with respect to them, as he or she can give them consistently with the orderly conduct of the proceedings and the discharge of his or her duties in connection with them.
(5) Where the votes are counted by sorting the ballot papers according to the candidates to whom votes are allocated under regulation 42 and then counting the number of ballot papers for each candidate, the counting agents are entitled to satisfy themselves that the ballot papers are correctly sorted.