Transitional provision
4(1)This paragraph applies where, immediately before the day specified for the purposes of this paragraph (“the specified day”), a person has a relevant postal vote entitlement lasting for—
(a)an indefinite period, or
(b)a period that would expire after the end of 3 years beginning with the specified day.
(2)A “relevant postal vote entitlement” means an entitlement, resulting from the grant of a pre-commencement application, to vote by post (whether as elector or proxy) at parliamentary elections in England and Wales or Scotland or at local government elections in England (or both).
(3)The person’s relevant postal vote entitlement ends on the applicable 31 January (unless it ends sooner).
(4)“The applicable 31 January” means—
(a)the third 31 January following the specified day, or
(b)if sooner, the signature refresh date.
(5)“The signature refresh date” means the 31 January by which the registration officer would be required to send the person a regulation 60A notice (assuming no change in the person’s entitlement or entitlements to vote by post or by proxy after the specified day, and disregarding sub-paragraph (9)).
(6)As soon as practicable after the specified day, the registration officer must alter the record kept under paragraph 3(4) or 7(6) of Schedule 4 to RPA 2000 (as the case may be) so as to reflect any change resulting from sub-paragraph (3) in the period for which the person’s relevant postal vote entitlement lasts.
(7)The registration officer must, before the applicable 31 January, send the person—
(a)a notice informing the person of the date on which the person’s relevant postal vote entitlement is to end, and
(b)information about how to make a fresh application to vote by post (as elector or, as the case may be, as proxy).
(8)Sub-paragraph (9) applies where, as a result of sub-paragraph (3), a person’s relevant postal vote entitlement is to end on the signature refresh date.
(9)Any requirement to send the person a regulation 60A notice by the signature refresh date does not apply, unless—
(a)the person has an entitlement (or entitlements) due to continue beyond that date—
(i)to vote by post (whether as elector or proxy) at local government elections in Scotland or Wales,
(ii)to vote by proxy at parliamentary elections in England and Wales or Scotland or at local government elections in England (or both), or
(iii)to vote by proxy at local government elections in Scotland or Wales, and
(b)regulation 60A applies in relation to that entitlement (or those entitlements).
(10)Expressions used in this paragraph and in Schedule 4 to RPA 2000 have the same meaning as in that Schedule.
(11)This paragraph does not apply in relation to a person who is registered in a register of parliamentary electors in pursuance of an overseas elector’s declaration made at any time before the day on which section 14 comes fully into force (see instead Part 2 of Schedule 7).
(12)In this paragraph—
“pre-commencement application” means an application made under paragraph 3(1) or 7(4)(a) of Schedule 4 to RPA 2000 before the specified day;
“register of parliamentary electors” means a register of parliamentary electors maintained under section 9 of RPA 1983;
“regulation 60A” means regulation 60A (requirement to provide fresh signatures) of the Representation of the People (England and Wales) Regulations 2001 (S.I. 2001/341) or the Representation of the People (Scotland) Regulations 2001 (S.I. 2001/497) (S. 2);
“regulation 60A notice” means a notice under regulation 60A;
“RPA 2000” means the Representation of the People Act 2000;
“specified” means specified by the Secretary of State in regulations made by statutory instrument.