Parliament (Elections and Meeting) Act 1943

27 Persons to whom writs are to be conveyed

(1) The writ for a parliamentary election shall be conveyed to the sheriff, mayor or other officer, to whom it is directed:

Provided that the writ for a parliamentary election for a constituency, as respects which a notice in the prescribed form requesting that writs for parliamentary elections therefor shall be conveyed to the acting returning officer has been sent by the sheriff, mayor or other officer who is the returning officer, or by any predecessor in office of his, to the Clerk of the Crown in Chancery and received by the said Clerk one month or more before the date of the issue of the writ, shall be conveyed to the acting returning officer, unless the notice has been revoked by a further notice in the prescribed form sent and received as aforesaid.

(2) Where under the preceding subsection a writ is required to be conveyed to the sheriff, mayor or other officer, to whom it is directed, that requirement shall be deemed to have been complied with if it is conveyed—

(a) to an under-sheriff, deputy mayor or other person, who is for the time being authorised by or under any enactment to execute the office or discharge the functions of such sheriff, mayor or other officer; or

(b) to the person found in a place recorded in the prescribed manner as the office of such sheriff, mayor or other officer, who is for the time being in charge thereof.

(3) Where under subsection (1) of this section a writ is required to be conveyed to an acting returning officer, that requirement shall be deemed to have been complied with if it is conveyed—

(a) to a person temporarily appointed under subsection (4) of section twelve of the Representation of the People Act, 1918, to act for him; or

(b) to the person found in a place recorded in the prescribed manner as the office of the acting returning officer who is for the time being in charge thereof.

(4) The person to whom the writ for a parliamentary election is conveyed under this Part of this Act shall, in accordance with the form of endorsement in that behalf contained in the Second Schedule to the Ballot Act, 1872, endorse the writ with a statement, signed by him, as to the date on which he received it.

(5) Any notice in force immediately before the commencement of this Act given to the Postmaster General by a sheriff, and expressing his desire that writs for parliamentary elections for a constituency in respect of which he is the returning officer shall be conveyed to the acting returning officer, shall have effect for the purposes of the proviso to subsection (1) of this section as if it had been such a notice as is therein mentioned sent by the sheriff to the Clerk of the Crown in Chancery and received by the said Clerk one month before the commencement of this Act.

(6) In relation to parliamentary elections for the City of London the preceding provisions of this section shall have effect subject to the following modifications, that is to say:—

(a) the proviso to subsection (1), and subsections (3) and (5), shall not have effect; and

(b) for paragraphs (a) and (b) of subsection (2) the following paragraphs shall be substituted:—

“(a) to either of the sheriffs of the City of London; or

(b) to the Secondary of the City of London; or

(c) to the person found in a place recorded in the prescribed manner as the office of the said sheriffs who is for the time being in charge thereof”.

(7) In relation to university elections the preceding provisions of this section shall have effect subject to the following modifications, that is to say:—

(a) the proviso to subsection (1), and subsections (3) and (5), shall not have effect; and

(b) for paragraph (a) of subsection (2) the following paragraph shall be substituted:—

“(a) to a person designated under paragraph 25 of- Part I of the Fifth Schedule to the Representation of the People Act, 1918, to act temporarily as returning officer at the election or a person appointed under paragraph 39 of Part II of that Schedule by the University Court of the University of Edinburgh to discharge the duties imposed by that Act on the Vice-Chancellor of that University, as the case may be”.

(8) In this section the expression " prescribed " means prescribed by an Order in Council made under section twenty-nine of this Act and the expressions " constituency " and " university election " have the same meanings as in the Representation of the People Act, 1918.