Voter ID for UK General Elections

When you need ID to vote

You must show photo ID when voting at a polling station in a UK General Election. This requirement does not apply to Scottish Parliament elections or local council elections.

Most people already have an accepted form of photo ID. If you do not, you can apply for free voter ID.

You need to show photo ID if you are voting in person at a:

  • UK General Election

You do not need to show photo ID at:

  • Scottish Parliament elections
  • local council elections

If you already have photo ID

You can check if your document is accepted on the Electoral Commission website.

You can continue to use some forms of photo ID even if they are out of date, as long as the photograph still looks like you.

If you do not have photo ID

If you do not have an accepted document, you can apply for free voter ID known as a Voter Authority Certificate.

You can apply:

You can find information on how to apply on the Electoral Commission voter ID webpage, or you can call the Highland Election Helpline on 01349 886657.

Information in other formats

You can get information about voter ID in other formats from the Electoral Commission, including:

  • audio
  • braille
  • BSL
  • easy read
  • plain text

Quick guide to voting videos

You can watch short guides explaining how voter ID works in Scotland:

British Sign Language (BSL) videos

You can watch BSL videos explaining:

Page last modified: 4 February 2026