Political

Police take no action over leaflet missing imprint

From Fareham comes this news:

Leaflets were distributed by the Lib Dems in the Fareham East ward, promoting the party’s candidates Katrina Trott and Maryam Brady.

A complaint was made to the police as the leaflets did not have imprints on the first or last pages, as required by law under the Representation of the People Act.

A police spokesman said they would not be pursuing the matter as ‘it is not in the public interest to do so at this time.’ They said the candidates had been contacted and given advice on the requirements for publications.

It’s worth quoting the College of Policing’s official guidance on imprints, highlighting the points about establishing whether a breach of the imprint rules is deliberate and whether it is a one-off:

Investigating imprint allegations

If a report is made to the police regarding an imprint offence, the following steps should be taken:

  • obtain and check the original material to establish whether there has been a breach of the local imprint rules
  • make a record of the allegation for future reference and for reporting incidents of alleged electoral malpractice to the Electoral Commission
  • check to see whether this is a repeat offence by a particular candidate or local non-party campaigner
  • check to see whether there are other allegations being made about this candidate or local non-party campaigner
  • if this is a repeat offence or connected to another offence, consideration of whether it should be investigated and a full report submitted to the CPS.

Be aware that most breaches of local imprint rules are committed because of ignorance of the legislation rather than intent to avoid identification.

Police response to an allegation of a breach of imprint rules

If it appears that the breach has been committed out of ignorance and there was no intention to commit further offences, depending upon the force it may be possible to deal with the allegation by means of an advice letter to the candidate or local non-party campaigner. Advice should be sought from the CPS if there is any uncertainty regarding how to deal with an allegation.

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