Pre-election publicity guidance Senedd Elections 2026

Pre-election guidance

When exercising decision making functions, the Council must give due regard to the following principles:

1. During the Election period the Council needs to ensure that it remains impartial and should strive to take a neutral stance.
2. The Council should not give prominence or publicity to any candidate, political party or matter which is politically controversial. During this period, care is therefore needed regarding matters presented to Council, Cabinet and Committees or matters which receive public attention and which are seen to be linked to individual candidates or a political party.
3. What constitutes a controversial issue is to some extent dependent on the local circumstance but in general they are likely to have characteristics such as, but not exclusively: 

1. 1. significantly divided public opinion, 
   2. lengthy periods of high profile debate and press interest and/or are those which involve the awarding of significant funding or contracts. 

The Constituency Returning Officer holds the final authority to determine whether an issue is controversial. Accordingly, any matter deemed potentially controversial should be referred to the Constituency Returning Officer by the relevant Director.

4. The Council should avoid issuing any publicity or doing anything or saying anything that could be perceived as seeking to influence voters. An example of this would be promoting an individual candidate or a political party such as, making references to individual candidates or parties in press releases. The exception to this is where legislation or regulation requires the publication of information.
5. Council publicity and /or any consultations and engagement should not deal with controversial or politically sensitive issues at a local or national level and where no statutory timetable applies, consideration should be given to whether the activity should be scheduled outside of the pre election period.
6. The Council should not report views, proposals or recommendations in such a way which identifies them with individual candidates and/or political parties which might gain electoral advantage as a result. 
7. Any publicity relating to central government policies or proposals should be presented in a balanced and factually accurate manner. 
8. The Council should not undertake engagements, arrange any proactive media events involving candidates or make any announcements or decisions, which are or could be construed as conferring electoral advantage on a particular candidate or a political party. 
9. No publicity should be given to events and projects that are funded by government grant funding during the pre-election period. If unsure please speak to the relevant Director, Constituency Returning Officer and/ or the Monitoring Officer/Marketing and Media Manager.  
10. Letters or e-mails from all candidates should receive equal treatment and Council facilities must not be used for the printing, translating and/or posting of candidates’ publicity.

The Members’ Code of Conduct provides that Members must not use Council resources for political purposes. Any services or facilities provided or requested by Elected Members, including requests for information from officers, should be used exclusively for the purposes of Council business or to enable the Member concerned to discharge their function as a councillor.

11. Employees must not provide briefings for use in election campaign debates/literature and publicity material relating to individual candidates or a political party. 
12. During the election period, meetings with candidates should be avoided unless they are regular meetings (for example, of a partnership body) in which the individuals concerned normally take part. Officers should not invite candidates, individuals attributed to a political party, or any elected members to meetings, conferences, openings or launches during the election period. 
13. Posters or stickers for any political party or/and any candidates’ should not be displayed in, on or within council offices, residential homes, depots, schools, vehicles etc. 
14. No photographs of candidates, individuals attributed to a political party, or any elected members will be issued or published by the council and care should be taken to ensure that no photographs inadvertently include the aforementioned. 
15. If a request is made to use any Council images which includes photographs, video clips or any other such materials, enquiries must be made as to how they are to be used. No Council photographs or other materials should be supplied to political group staff or anyone else during the pre-election period unless it has been verified and agreement has been given that they will not be used for campaigning purposes.
16. Council events must not be held on political party premises at any time.
17. Careful consideration should be given to specific requests to facilitate visits to Council-owned premises or venues by potential candidates or individuals associated with political parties. As such visits tend to be associated with photo opportunities and press publicity which may appear to the public as intended to promote a candidate or their party. 

To ensure compliance and consistency, all requests for visits or for use of premises from likely election candidates, their agents, political personalities or political parties shall be referred to the designated Single Point of Contact (SPOC):

Shelley Williams, Electoral Services Manager, CAElectoralServices@carmarthenshire.gov.uk

No use should be agreed without prior approval from the SPOC.

A decision on such requests shall be made by the SPOC in accordance with the principles set out in this guidance. The SPOC shall notify the requester of the decision, having sought advice from the Chief Executive (as Constituency Returning Officer) if appropriate. Where the position remains unclear, the advice of the Monitoring Officer shall be sought.

18. It may be necessary to suspend the hosting of materials produced by third parties, or to close public forums during this period to avoid breaching legal restrictions.
19. Councils are also forbidden to give financial or other assistance to other bodies to enable them to publish material which the authority itself may not publish. 
20. The LA should not assist with national or local political visits (they must be arranged by the political parties with neither cost nor resource implications for a local authority).