Security guidance for elections
This guidance provides detailed advice on good election security practice. If you are an election candidate, please visit the Candidate Security Guidance Collection linked at the top of this page to find the specific information you need on protective, cyber and information security.
Documents
Details
If you are an election candidate, please visit the Candidate Security Guidance Collection to find the specific information you need on protective, cyber and information security
We recommend Returning Officers and local authority staff read:
1. Cyber Guidance for Organisations Coordinating Elections - advice for organisations involved in administering UK elections on good cyber security practices to protect systems and data.
2. Protective Security Guidance for Organisations Coordinating Elections - state threats guidance from the National Protective Security Authority. This can be accessed on gov.uk by anyone with a gov.uk email address or on the National Protective Security Authority’s extranet.
3. Election Security for Polling Stations and Counting Venues - guidance to assist Returning Officers develop a security plan to avoid major disruption to the electoral process.
4. Protecting Pedestrian Queues - guidance aimed at polling station staff on how to protect and secure pedestrian queues from the National Protective Security Authority. There is also additional guidance on this page including on insider risk, recognising terrorist threats and social engineering that are aimed at election officials.
5. Mail Screening and Suspect Packages - guidance from the National Protective Security Authority on how to identify suspicious items and how to act when an item of concern is discovered. This advice is aimed at those who operate physical locations associated with elections such as polling stations.