Absent voting lists: supply of copies etc
20.—(1) Any person who, in accordance with any of the provisions listed in sub-paragraph (2), is entitled to be supplied with copies of the full register is also a person entitled to request that the registration officer supply the relevant part (within the meaning of the listed provisions) of a copy of any of the following information which the registration officer keeps—
(a)the current version of the information which would, in the event of a particular PCC election, be included in the postal voters list, the list of proxies or the proxy postal voters list;
(b)the current or final version of the postal voters list, the list of proxies or the proxy postal voters lists.
(2) The listed provisions are—
(a)paragraph 3 of Schedule 1 (supply of full register etc to police and crime commissioner and restrictions on use);
(b)paragraph 5 of Schedule 1 (supply of full register etc to certain candidates and restrictions on use);
(c)regulation 105 of the 2001 Regulations (supply of full register etc to local constituency parties and restrictions on use);
(d)regulation 106 of the 2001 Regulations (supply of full register etc to registered political parties and restrictions on use).
(3) A request under sub-paragraph (1) must be made in writing and must specify—
(a)the information (or the relevant parts of the information) requested,
(b)whether the request is made only in respect of the current lists or whether it includes a request for the supply of any final list, and
(c)whether a printed copy is requested or a copy in data form.
(4) In response to a request under sub-paragraph (1) that has been duly made, the registration officer must—
(a)as soon as practicable after receipt of the request, supply the current version of information requested;
(b)as soon as practicable after 5pm on the eleventh day before the day of the poll, supply a copy of any postal voters list or proxy postal voters list requested.
(5) As soon as practicable after 5pm on the sixth day before the day of the poll the registration officer must—
(a)make a copy of the postal voters list, the list of proxies or the proxy postal voters list available for inspection at the registration officer’s office in accordance with paragraph 21;
(b)send a copy of those lists to each relevant returning officer (within the meaning of paragraph 1 of Schedule 1); and
(c)supply a final copy of the postal voters list, the list of proxies or the proxy postal voters list in response to every request under sub-paragraph (1) that has been duly made.
(6) As soon as practicable after 5pm on the day of the poll, the registration officer must supply to every person who received a copy of the list of proxies under sub-paragraph (5)(c) a further copy of that list which is updated to include any additions to the list that were made in consequence of any application within paragraph 16(2)(a) or (b) which was granted before 5pm on the day of the poll.
(7) Any information or lists supplied under this paragraph are to be supplied free of charge.
(8) A person who obtains any information under this paragraph may use it only for—
(a)research purposes within the meaning of that term in section 33 of the Data Protection Act 1998(1); or
(b)electoral purposes,
and such use is also subject to the restrictions specified in paragraphs 23 and 24 or, where the request to the registration officer is made by reference to a provision listed in sub-paragraph (2), subject to any restrictions which would apply to the use of the full register under whichever of the listed provisions entitled the person to obtain the information.
(9) Any person who has obtained or is entitled to obtain a copy of information covered by sub-paragraph (1) may—
(a)supply a copy of the information to a processor for the purpose of processing the information, or
(b)procure that a processor processes and supplies to that person any copy of the information which the processor has obtained under this paragraph,
for use in respect of the purposes for which that person is entitled to obtain such information.
(10) A processor may not disclose information covered by sub-paragraph (1) except to the person who supplied it to the processor or to any other person, or an employee of such a person, who is entitled to obtain a copy of that information under this paragraph.