Election timetables

When a returning officer runs an election they must follow electoral law. Each type of election has its own set of conduct rules, the rules on how the returning officer must run the election. The first part of these rules is usually the timetable.

What is in the timetable?

The timetable sets deadlines for certain things to happen. These are:

• Publication of the notice of election
• Nominations deadlines, including objections to and withdrawal of a nomination
• Publication of a statement of those nominated and notice of poll for a contested election
• Polling day.

Other rules, such as registering to vote or to arrange an absent vote (either a postal or proxy vote), are set out in other pieces of legislation and not in the conduct rules for an election. However, registration or absent vote application deadlines for a particular election are usually set with reference to polling day.

How long are they?

Most elections follow a 25-working day timetable. Weekends and bank holidays are not counted in the timetable.

UK Parliament general elections have a 25 working-day timetable as set out in schedule 1 of the Representation of the People Act 1983. By-elections for the UK Parliament have a more flexible timetable of 21 to 27 days.

The timetable for UK Parliament general elections was increased from 17 to 25 days in 2015. This was to allow greater time for postal votes to be sent and returned and to bring the general election timetable in line with the local election timetable in England and Wales. This helped reduce the complexity of running the elections when they were combined and held on the same day.

There have been calls for a longer election timetable to allow more time for electoral administrators to carry out the range of tasks needed to make an election happen and for more time for postal votes to be returned. The Association of Electoral Administrators has said all elections should have a 30-day timetable. The Law Commissions for England and Wales and for Scotland have recommended election timetables be standardised to 28 days.

The government published a policy paper on elections in July 2025. It acknowledged the challenges of a 25-day timetable but did not propose altering the overall length of the timetable for UK Parliament or other elections. Instead, it proposes altering the nomination period and deadline to ensure the nominations process is completed more quickly. The government also proposes bringing forward the postal voting application deadline by three working days to allow more time for postal votes to be sent and returned.