As you may be aware, I am standing in the election to be Sussex Police and Crime Commissioner on 15th November, having never been involved in political life previously. The processes are bound to be something of a challenge as a result. However one does wonder if the novices here are the Home Office rather than some of the candidates?

Sussex candidates recently met with the Police Area Returning Officer (or PARO). We asked a number of questions and after a short delay these have been answered. The answers do appear to reflect the inadequacy of this process:

Because candidates are disqualified if they have committed an imprisonable offence, we asked for a list of such offences?

The answer from the Home Office is “Unfortunately no – it’s not as simple as that as there are significant numbers of offences. The Electoral Commission has some guidance on it, but if someone has any concern about an offence then we are strongly recommending they seek legal advice.”

Whilst it is not unreasonable to be told to take such advice, it seems incomprehensible to me that a more simple procedure was not adopted in first place during the drawing up of this legislation.

We asked if candidates have to include the imprint (effectively the name and postal address of the person supplying the information) on their 300 word address to be added to the government website, and will this count towards the word limit?

The answer is that the Home Office will come back to us on this question. In other words they have not even thought of this issue!

We also asked can candidates include their own website url in their address and will this count towards the word limit?

The answer here is clear and unambigious but equally unbelievable

Yes, but it won’t be hyperlinked. It will count as one word.

The odd thing is that despite the whole process being intended to help people who are web based and IT literate, the website will not provide a one click option to ensure that candidates own websites can be accessed. This is really frustrating as most people who analyse the use of websites suggest that each stage demanded of the browser means that many will turn off. I admit to not being techie enough to understand if my frustration here is based on misunderstanding why the hyperlink is not available but it seems totally bizarre to me and I am sure it reflects process over communication.