EXPLANATORY NOTE
(This note is not part of the Regulations)
These Regulations make provision for a Welsh elections information platform, as required by section 26 of the Elections and Elected Bodies (Wales) Act 2024 (asc 5) (“the 2024 Act”). The Regulations provide for the establishment of the Welsh elections information platform that will provide up-to-date information, or access to up-to-date information from other electronic sources, to electors to support their participation in the elections specified in regulation 1, namely Senedd Cymru elections and ordinary elections to principal councils in Wales.
Regulation 3 specifies the Electoral Management Board (“EMB”), established by the Democracy and Boundary Commission Cymru, under section 20E of the Democracy and Boundary Commission Cymru etc. Act 2013 (anaw 4) (as amended by section 1 of the 2024 Act), as the platform operator.
Regulation 4 confers the functions of establishing and operating the platform on the platform operator and sets out what the operator must do when carrying out those functions. Regulation 5 places a duty on the EMB to provide guidance about the operation of the platform.
Regulation 6 sets out the information that must be placed on the platform, including particular information relating to candidates and registered political parties standing at an election, and information that returning officers are duty bound to publish during the election process. The regulation also provides the platform operator with discretion to publish other information to assist electors.
Regulation 7 requires the platform operator to take reasonable steps to ensure that the information published on the platform is accessible to electors.
Regulations 8 and 9 provide that, for Senedd Cymru elections, individual candidates, a registered political party which has submitted a list of candidates for a constituency, or election agents may provide an election address to the platform operator for publication on the platform. The provisions deal with how election addresses are to be submitted and set out material that they must not contain.
For ordinary elections of principal councils in Wales, regulations 10 to 12 state that candidates, or the candidate’s election agent, may provide a candidate statement to the platform operator for publication on the platform. The provisions prescribe the format and content of the document.
Candidates will be notified of the deadline for the submission of an election address or candidate statement by the platform operator through a notice of submission process as outlined in regulation 13.
Regulation 14 provides that the platform operator must publish on the platform an election address or candidate statement that complies with the requirements in these Regulations. Regulation 15 requires the platform operator to ensure that it makes arrangements to enable an election address or candidate statement to be submitted electronically or in hardcopy.
Regulation 16 makes provision that only candidates and the election agent for the candidate or for the registered political party, which has submitted a list of candidates for a constituency, and no other person, may incur any civil or criminal liability for the publication of the content of an election address or candidate statement on the platform.
Regulations 17 to 19 make provision requiring the Welsh Ministers to publish and lay before Senedd Cymru reports for each specified election about how the platform has been established and operated. The platform operator must provide Welsh Ministers with assistance and information in connection with the preparation of a report.
The Welsh Ministers’ Code of Practice on the carrying out of Regulatory Impact Assessments was considered in relation to these Regulations. As a result, a regulatory impact assessment has been prepared as to the likely costs and benefits of complying with these Regulations. A copy can be obtained from Welsh Government, Cathays Park, Cardiff, CF10 3NQ and is published on www.gov.wales.