We've received the following guidance from the Home Office around Purdah:
Purdah
At the last Elections Panel in July, we took away an action to clarify the position around purdah.
There has been some confusion over the different pre-election periods that apply to national and local government, both which are referred to locally, although not officially, as ‘purdah’.
For civil servants, there is a period of ‘extra sensitivity’ ahead of an election in which the Government take care with making any new announcements which could have an impact on the PCC elections. This is usually 3 weeks, and the Cabinet Office has advised that for the PCC elections this will be from 24th October. The Cabinet Office will be issuing guidance shortly; and the restrictions will be similar to that which was issued for the 3rd May 2012 elections, which is available via the following link:
http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/sites/default/files/resources/2012-election-guidance.pdf
For local authorities, it is up to the authorities to determine how they behave, subject to The Code of Recommended Practice on Local Authority Publicity (“the Publicity Code”). In the Code there is a period described as a ‘period of heightened sensitivity’ (often referred to as purdah). For the PCC elections, this will be from 8th October. The Code can be accessed via the following link:
http://www.communities.gov.uk/documents/localgovernment/pdf/1878324.pdf
