Citation and interpretation

1.—(1) These Regulations may be cited as the Absent Voting (Elections in Scotland and Wales) Act 2025 (Commencement and Transitional Provisions) Regulations 2026.

(2) In these Regulations—

“ the 2000 Act ” means the Representation of the People Act 2000 ( 2 );

“ the 2025 Act ” means the Absent Voting (Elections in Scotland and Wales) Act 2025 ;

“ the 2026 Scottish Regulations ” means the Absent Voting (Miscellaneous Amendment) (Scotland) Regulations 2026 ( 3 );

“ the 2026 Welsh Regulations ” means the Representation of the People (Absent Voting and Miscellaneous Amendments) (Wales) Regulations 2026 ( 4 );

“ registration officer ” means an electoral registration officer appointed in accordance with section 8 of the Representation of the People Act 1983 ( 5 ).

Appointed day

2. The day appointed for the coming into force of section 1(4) to (6) of the 2025 Act is 3rd November 2026.

Specified date

3. For the purposes of the definitions of “devolved election postal vote entitlement” and “parliamentary election postal vote entitlement” in section 4(6) of the 2025 Act, the specified date is 3rd November 2026.

Transitional provision: outstanding absent voting applications

4.—(1) Paragraph (2) applies where—

(a)either—

(i)an absent voting application for local government elections in Scotland is treated as having not been made, in accordance with regulation 24(1) of the 2026 Scottish Regulations, or

(ii)a devolved absent voting application or a devolved proxy postal voting application is treated as having not been made in accordance with regulation 30(1) of the 2026 Welsh Regulations, and

(b)the same application included an application under paragraph 3, 4, 6 or 7 of Schedule 4 to the 2000 Act(6) in relation to a parliamentary election or parliamentary elections.

(2) Where this paragraph applies—

(a)the application described in paragraph (1)(b) is also to be treated as having not been made, and

(b)as soon as practicable on or after 3rd November 2026 the registration officer must send the applicant information about how to make a fresh application.

Transitional provision: aligning expiry of certain parliamentary election postal voting entitlements where devolved election postal voting entitlements expiring

5.—(1) Paragraph (2) applies where—

(a) immediately before 3rd November 2026, a person (“ P ”) holds both a parliamentary election postal voting entitlement and a devolved election postal voting entitlement( 7 ), and

(b)P’s devolved election postal vote entitlement ends on the transitional expiry date in accordance with regulation 25(4)(a) of the 2026 Scottish Regulations or regulation 32(4) of the 2026 Welsh Regulations.

(2) P’s parliamentary postal vote entitlement ends on the same date as P’s devolved election postal vote entitlement (unless it ends sooner).

(3) As soon as practicable on or after 3rd November 2026, the registration officer must alter the record kept under paragraph 3(4) or 7(6) of Schedule 4 to the 2000 Act (as the case may be) to reflect any change resulting from paragraph (2) in the period for which P’s parliamentary election postal vote entitlement lasts.

(4) Before the date on which P’s parliamentary election postal vote entitlement is to end in accordance with paragraph (2), the registration officer must send to P, at P’s qualifying address—

(a)a notice informing P of the date on which P’s parliamentary election postal vote entitlement is to end, and

(b)information about how to make a fresh application to vote by post (as elector or as proxy, as the case may be) at parliamentary elections.

(5) In this regulation—

(a) in paragraph (1)(b), “ transitional expiry date ” has the same meaning as in regulation 25(9) of the 2026 Scottish Regulations or, as the case may be, regulation 32(9) of the 2026 Welsh Regulations;

(b) in paragraph (4), “ qualifying address ” means the address in respect of which the person is registered as an elector in the register of parliamentary electors maintained under section 9(1)(a) of the Representation of the People Act 1983 ( 8 ).