The Scottish Parliament (Elections etc.) Order 2002

Supply of free copy of full register for electoral purposes

1.—(1) As soon as practicable after the relevant date, a registration officer shall supply free of charge to the returning officer for the council, or as the case may be, each council, constituted under section 2 of the Local Government etc (Scotland) Act 1994 for his registration area as many printed copies of–

(a) the latest revised version of the register published under section 13(1) or (3) of the 1983 Act, as the case may be;

(b) any notice setting out an alteration to the version of the register published under section 13A(2) or 13B(3) of that Act,

as the returning officer may reasonably require for the purposes of a Scottish Parliamentary election.

(2) In sub-paragraph (1) above–

(a) “relevant date” means–

(i) in the case of a general election of members of the Scottish Parliament the date of the dissolution of the Scottish Parliament as provided for at section 2(3)(a) of the Scotland Act 1998;

(ii) where the Presiding Officer has proposed a day for the holding of the poll under section 2(5) or 3(2) of the Scotland Act 1998, the announcement of Her Majesty’s intention to dissolve the Parliament; or

(iii) the occurrence of a vacancy of a constituency seat in the relevant constituency; and

(b) the duty to supply as many printed copies of the register and notices as the returning officer may reasonably require includes a duty to supply one copy of each in data form.

(3) No person to whom a copy of the register has been supplied under this paragraph may–

(a) supply a copy of the full register;

(b) disclose any information contained in it (that is not contained in the edited register); or

(c) make use of any such information,

except for the purposes of an election.