The Scottish Government has made a targeted set of amendments to the rules governing Scottish local government elections, with the changes signed on 2 September 2026, laid before the Scottish Parliament on 4 September 2026 and due to come into force on 13 November 2026. The instrument amends schedule 1 to the Scottish Local Government Elections Order 2011, which contains the rules for local elections where the poll is not held on the same day as another election. The Order is formally in force from November, but it is expressly switched off for any election with a polling day on or before 5 May 2027. In practice, that gives returning officers, electoral administrators, parties and independent candidates a preparation window before the new rules apply at later contests.
The legal basis is drawn from the Local Governance (Scotland) Act 2004, and the Scottish Ministers state that the Electoral Commission was consulted in line with the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000. That matters because the changes are not confined to form design. They touch candidate nominations, ballot presentation, information sent to electors and the equipment available in polling stations. Taken together, the amendments are administrative rather than constitutional, but they are likely to be noticed on the ground. Election teams will need updated templates, revised staff guidance, changes to print specifications and fresh checks on accessibility provision before the first polls affected by the Order.
One of the clearest operational changes sits in the nomination rules. Where a candidate does not publish a home address statement, or where a candidate does publish a home address but that address is outside Scotland, the home address form must now include a correspondence address within Scotland. According to the explanatory note, that Scottish correspondence address is only used and published if the candidate becomes their own election agent by default. The adjustment is narrow, but it closes a practical gap. It gives administrators a Scotland-based address for agency purposes without forcing publication of a private home address.
The Order also standardises how candidate names appear on ballot papers. Under the amended rule 14, each candidate’s surname must appear first, followed by the forename, with a comma separating the two. The change is reflected again in the substituted ballot paper form. The point is not cosmetic. A fixed naming format reduces variation between council areas, supports more consistent ballot production and may limit confusion where candidates are known by multi-part names or by a forename that would otherwise appear first. Suppliers and returning officers will need to ensure election management systems and print proofs follow the new sequencing exactly.
On poll cards, the amendment gives returning officers clearer discretion to add extra information beyond the material already required in the prescribed forms. The added content must not relate to any candidate or registered party, but it may differ between electors or categories of elector. That widens the room for practical messaging. Returning officers may tailor explanatory text between postal voters, proxy voters and in-person voters, or include locally relevant instructions about polling places, accessibility arrangements or deadlines. The boundary set by the Order is that the extra content must remain administrative rather than campaign-related.
The most substantial policy change concerns disabled voter access in polling stations. The previous rule required a specified device for blind and partially sighted voters. The new wording replaces that with a broader duty to provide whatever equipment it is reasonable to provide to enable, or make it easier for, relevant persons to vote independently in the manner required by the rules, including in secret. The definition of relevant persons is wider than visual impairment alone. It covers people who find it difficult or impossible to vote as directed because of blindness, partial sight or another disability. That moves the local government rules to a needs-based model: the question for administrators is no longer whether a particular device has been supplied, but whether the equipment provided reasonably supports independent and secret voting for disabled electors.
The Order then builds a guidance structure around that new duty. The Electoral Commission must issue guidance to returning officers and, before doing so, must consult bodies representing the interests of relevant persons and others it considers appropriate. Returning officers must have regard to that guidance when meeting the equipment duty. A transitional provision also treats guidance already issued for Scottish Parliament elections as valid for these local election purposes where the Commission has already completed the required consultation. Finally, the schedule substitutes new versions of Form 2, the nomination paper, and Form 4, the ballot paper. The explanatory note says the nomination form changes follow the Scottish Elections (Representation and Reform) Act 2025, while the ballot paper form is updated to match the standard name format introduced by this instrument. Signed by Jamie Hepburn on behalf of the Scottish Ministers, the Order is a technical measure, but one with direct consequences for ballot design, candidate paperwork, voter communications and polling-station accessibility across Scotland.