Representation of the People Act 1985

19 Timing of elections. U.K.

(1) In section 40(1) of the principal Act (days to be disregarded for the purpose of the timing of local elections in England and Wales)—

(a) for the words “Sunday, day of the Christmas break, of the Easter break or of a bank holiday break” there shall be substituted the words “Saturday, Sunday, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, bank holiday”; and

(b) the words for “In this subsection” onwards shall cease to have effect.

(2) In section 39 of that Act (local elections void etc. in England and Wales) in subsection (1) (period within which elections to fill vacancies to be held) for the words “42 days” there shall be substituted the words “35 days”.

(3) In section 43 of that Act (day of ordinary local elections in Scotland and other timing provisions) in subsection (2) immediately before the words “Sunday”, “Christmas Day” and “Good Friday” there shall be inserted respectively the words “Saturday”, “Christmas Eve” and “Maundy Thursday” and for the words “for the purposes of this Act” there shall be substituted the words “for the purposes of this Part of this Act in so far as it relates to the conduct of local government elections in Scotland”.

(4) In section 119 of that Act (computation of time for purposes of Part II) for subsections (2) and (3) there shall be substituted—

“(2) The days referred to in subsection (1) above are Saturday, Sunday, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, a bank holiday or a day appointed for public thanksgiving or mourning.

(3) In this section ”bank holiday’, in relation to any election, means a day which is a bank holiday in the part of the United Kingdom in which the constituency or, as the case may be, electoral area is situated.”.

(5) In Schedule 1 to the principal Act (parliamentary elections rules), in rule 2 (computation of time)—

(a) in paragraph (1) for sub-paragraph (b) there shall be substituted—

“(b) Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday or a bank holiday”;

and

(b) paragraph (3) shall cease to have effect.

(6) In the M1 Local Government Act 1972—

(a) in section 243 (computation of time) in subsection (3) for the words “Where under subsection (1) above the day of election or” there shall be substituted the words “Where under subsection (4) below” and the words “of election or”, in the second place where they occur, and “as the case may be” shall cease to have effect;

(b) for the purposes of subsection (4) of that section, subsection (1) of that section shall have effect as if for the words from “Sunday” to “bank holiday break” there were substituted the words “Saturday, Sunday, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday or bank holiday”; and

(c) in section 89(1) (period within which elections to fill casual vacancies in office of councillor for principal area to be held) for the words “forty-two days”, in both places where they occur, there shall be substituted the words “thirty-five days”.

Marginal Citations

M1 1972 c. 70.