Candidates allowed to use third party delivery services to hand deliver election leaflets – complaint branded “pathetic mischief-making”

Election candidates in Wales are not allowed to deliver leaflets themselves, but can hire third party services to do it on their behalf as well as using the post service.

The clarity has been given after questions were raised following a complaint made to police over the weekend.

North Wales Police told us, “We received a report at 12.26pm on March 6th that people were delivering political leaflets through letter boxes to addresses in Rhostyllen. We attended the area, but didn’t witness anyone canvassing.”

The deliveries were being carried out by a local company on behalf of Plaid Cymru Senedd candidate Carrie Harper.

The complainant who rang the police described a group leafleting every house on their road, with several other local residents reportedly mentioning concerns to the complainant, that they believed the deliveries were at odds with the Welsh Government guidance during this Level 4 pandemic .

Local Plaid Cymru group leader Marc Jones said, “It’s perfectly understandable in terms of trying to limit Covid that leafleting has not been permitted but it also means that candidates have had to turn to the Royal Mail to deliver leaflets or to post letters.”

The current full guidance for Alert Level 4 states:

Are political parties, candidates and other campaigners permitted to deliver election leaflets?
All of Wales is at alert level 4 and the general rules are that people must stay at home except for very limited purposes and they must not visit other households or meet other people they do not live with. People can leave home if they have a “reasonable excuse”. This means leaving home only for a purpose that is reasonably necessary and where there is no reasonably practicable alternative.

In the current circumstances, distributing election leaflets door-to-door is not a reasonable excuse to leave home. Leaflets can of course be distributed safely by post, as mail delivery services continue to operate during the pandemic. Political parties, candidates and campaigners are encouraged to consider the full range of means, including social media, available to them to provide information to the electorate about the election.

The guidance states ‘post’ delivery service is acceptable, however the specifics on if a third party delivery service (non-Royal Mail, who is the common provider for ‘final mile’ service) is permitted is not explicitly addressed, and it was not a simple process to discover the firm guidance.

The police were unable to detail what action they would have taken if they had encountered such a third party delivery company carrying out hand leaflet delivery.

Wrexham Council run elections locally via their Electoral Services department, however don’t set the formal rules or framework that have to be followed. The council pointed us to the Electoral Commission to discover the answer to our query for clarity. Contrary to some unreferenced reports we are told candidates have not been ‘reminded’ of rules.

The Electoral Commission’s contact line for Wales is no longer functioning, however they eventually pointed us to Welsh Government for the final verdict on the rules.

We asked Welsh Government about the local scenario and if it was compliant.

We also asked for comment on the appropriateness of Welsh Government effectively being the final arbiters of candidate activity in elections that they will participate in, and why such detail has not been thought through or communicated in light of several by elections active in North Wales (polling days on by elections on 18th and 25th), let alone the Senedd.

A Welsh Government spokesperson reiterated the guidance above and in addition told us, “Leaflets can be distributed safely by delivery services, which continue to operate during the pandemic”.

Separately Welsh Government also issued a wider public update on elections due on the 6 May 2021, it also references the topic of leaflets saying, “Campaigning is important to ensure voters are well informed before going to the polls, and candidates must be able to communicate with the electorate. However, this must be balanced with protecting public health. Campaigning activity, such as leafleting, will commence across the UK as COVID restrictions ease; the pace of this will vary between nations and campaigners in each nation will need to follow the guidance and regulations made by the relevant Government.”