The Representation of the People (Absent Voting at Local Government Elections) (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2026 make two targeted changes to Scotland’s local election absent-voting rules. Made on 2 September 2026, laid before the Scottish Parliament on 4 September and due to come into force on 13 November 2026, the instrument both widens one route to an emergency proxy and tightens the timetable for refreshing proxy signatures. In practical terms, the Regulations leave the wider absent-voting framework in place but adjust two pressure points in the 2007 rules. One is aimed at voters dealing with a late medical-care commitment on polling day. The other gives Electoral Registration Officers a fixed annual date for seeking updated signatures from proxy voters. The Scottish Government has previously said signature refresh reform was intended to reduce confusion between devolved and UK Parliament absent-vote systems. (gov.scot)
The first change sits in regulation 10 and concerns emergency proxy voting for a particular election. A voter will now be able to apply late where they cannot reasonably be expected to vote in person because they are accompanying another person who is receiving medical care or treatment on polling day. The application must explain why it could not be made before 5 pm on the sixth day before the poll and must be attested by someone aged 16 or over who knows the applicant and is not related to them. That attestation test matters. Electoral Commission guidance for Scottish elections already uses the same structure for comparable medical-companion applications, including the rule that a relative for these purposes means a spouse, civil partner, parent, grandparent, sibling, child or grandchild. Read alongside that guidance, the local government amendment appears to mirror an existing Scottish Parliament model rather than create a wholly separate process. (electoralcommission.org.uk)
There is, however, a delayed-application point that will matter in practice. The instrument states that regulation 3 has no effect for any election where polling day falls on or before 5 May 2027, so the new medical-companion proxy route is enacted now but held back for earlier polls covered by that cut-off. For electoral administrators, that lead-in is useful. Electoral Commission guidance notes that emergency proxy applications can be made up to 5 pm on polling day and may require direct communication with Presiding Officers, because a late-appointed proxy may not appear on the original lists issued to polling stations. (electoralcommission.org.uk)
The second amendment is more administrative, but no less important. Regulation 15A(1) is changed so that registration officers must, every year by 31 January, notify any proxy voter whose signature on record is more than five years old that a fresh signature is required. Electoral Commission guidance already sets out the operational effect of that wording. The refresh exercise is annual; a reminder follows after three weeks if no reply is received; and if no fresh signature arrives within six weeks of the original notice, the proxy vote entry must be removed from the relevant records. The proxy voter can apply again, but the entitlement does not simply continue unchanged. (electoralcommission.org.uk)
This amendment is best understood against the immediate background. In 2025, Scottish Ministers temporarily disapplied signature refresh requirements ahead of the 7 May 2026 Scottish Parliament election, after officials warned that some voters might confuse devolved absent-vote rules with the separate UK Parliament online application system. The Scottish Government’s equality impact assessment said around 75,000 voters were due to refresh their signature before that election. (gov.scot) Viewed in that context, the 2026 Regulations look like the follow-on step after a temporary deferral. The earlier policy paused the refresh cycle to avoid voter confusion; the new wording replaces that short-term workaround with a fixed annual date for proxy signature maintenance. That reading is an inference from the published sequence of government and Electoral Commission documents, but it is consistent with the stated policy rationale. (gov.scot)
For voters, the public-facing effect is narrow but real. Anyone unexpectedly required to accompany another person for medical care on polling day should have a clearer legal route to a proxy at Scottish council elections once the new provision is live, provided the application is properly explained and independently attested. For Electoral Registration Officers, the clearer shift is procedural. January becomes the fixed point for proxy signature refresh notices, reminders and record maintenance, with less discretion over timing. That should make council election absent-vote administration more predictable and make voter communications easier to standardise across devolved polls. (electoralcommission.org.uk)