Statement of Persons Nominated (SoPN)
Official candidate list published by a returning officer after UK election nominations close.
Last refreshed: 10 April 2026
Why is there no aggregate UK candidate count at T-30 from polling day?
Latest on Statement of Persons Nominated (SoPN)
- What is a Statement of Persons Nominated?
- The official candidate list published by a returning officer after nominations close for a UK election.
- When are UK election Statements of Persons Nominated published?
- After nominations close; for the 7 May 2026 elections, nominations close on 9 April 2026 and SoPNs are published shortly after.
- Where can I find the full list of candidates for UK elections?
- Democracy Club aggregates SoPNs from every returning officer into a searchable national database at candidates.democracyclub.org.uk.Source: Democracy Club
Background
A Statement of Persons Nominated (SoPN) is the official document published by a returning officer after nominations close for a UK election, listing every validly nominated candidate for a given ballot. It contains the candidate's name, home address (or electoral area), party affiliation, agent, and the subscribers who signed the nomination form. SoPNs are the legal basis for the ballot paper and are published by law.
For the 7 May 2026 elections, SoPNs become available only after nominations close on 9 April 2026 — 28 days before polling day. Democracy Club, the UK's only independent candidate-data aggregator, ingests SoPNs from every returning officer to build a national database; as of 7 April 2026, it had processed only 81 of 3,074 SoPN areas (2.6 per cent), all Scottish. This means no independent verified aggregate candidate count for the 2026 English, Welsh, or mayoral elections exists at T-30.
The SoPN data gap is not a bureaucratic footnote: until Democracy Club closes that 97.4 per cent shortfall, media organisations and campaign trackers cannot confirm whether Reform UK, minor parties, or independent candidates have fielded candidates in specific wards. The 28-day window between nominations closing and polling day is structurally tight, compressing candidate research, tactical voting advice, and voter-information publishing into the final month of the campaign.