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Remember, you can follow all the results as they happen with the BBC - online, through apps, your smart speaker, the BBC News Channel and Radio 4 and 5 Live.

We have:

• Live pages from Scotland and Walesand England, and live video streams of the special coverage on the BBC News Channel
• A postcode checker will allow easy access to information on constituencies, results as they come in and information on candidates

Click here to learn more.

We'll be bringing you the results throughout,- and Friday's live page will kick off from 0600 BST.

Hope you can join us - goodbye for now.

Polls have closed, so here's where we are:

• The first result is likely to be from Hartlepool, expected at around 04:00 BST
• Some councils will declare overnight tonight, although the overwhelming majority are starting their counts from tomorrow
• We should know the make up of the Welsh Senedd this time tomorrow
• By Friday evening we should know the result of Scottish Parliament constituency elections, but we'll have to wait over the weekend for proportional list results
• 143 local councils in England are up for election
• 13 regional mayors and 39 police and crime commissioners also face elections
• Monday is expected to be the last day for results to be declared

Political parties flying blind as pandemic halts doorstep campaigningpublished at 23:40 British Summer Time 6 May 2021

23:40 BST 6 May 2021

Laura Kuenssberg
Political editor

The national polling puts Conservatives ahead most of the time, but there are matters that exist in local communities which can't be accounted for in national polling.

The parties are flying blind this time around. They haven't been able to campaign on the doorstep due to the pandemic.

Whether it's Hartlepool's MP or Wakefield's council, the Conservatives are hoping to show they can dig further into territory which would have been alien to them a decade ago.

Labour is under pressure to show that under Sir Keir Starmer, they're able to stop the rot.

Whether Nicola Sturgeon can achieve an overall majority in Holyrood, then the UK could be headed for another couple of years of very intense constitutional debate. It could very quickly become Boris Johnson's biggest headache.

Image source, Reuters

Two voters in Glasgow North West have said they were temporarily turned away from a polling station because ballot boxes were "too full".

Nadeem and Joanna Basharat were turned away from Jordanhill Parish Church polling station at 8:30pm, and told to come back later.

A steward said ballot box 52 was too full and they were told to come back by 10pm.

When they went back to vote, they said the box was still very full. It looked like the papers inside had just been "pushed down".

A spokesman for Glasgow's Returning Officer said: "The sheer size of the regional paper meant some ballot boxes became full. We were able to deliver replacement boxes, but in this case some voters were asked to wait outside before voting.

"The presiding officer is confident that all voters who were asked to wait were ultimately able to vote."

Labour and the Conservatives have both sought to play down expectations as the votes begin to be counted.

Labour acknowledged the elections would be "tough", with a Labour source saying: "Keir has always been honest about the mountain we must climb to rebuild trust to win the next general election.

"Labour is listening and we will continue to change in order to win back the trust of working people in Britain and their communities."

It's a similar story from the Conservatives.

A Tory source said it was "looking tough in Hartlepool" as "Labour have flooded the area with activists".

Conservative staff had been encouraged to use spare time on Thursday evening to make calls for the candidate Jill Mortimer.

It was also suggested it was a "mixed picture" across the country.

Young people aged 16 and 17-years-old could vote in today's Scottish and Welsh elections - but not in England.

We spoke to some teenagers in Leeds to see what they thought - and what policies they cared about.

Hartlepool's by-election is a crucial test for Tories and Labourpublished at 22:58 British Summer Time 6 May 2021

22:58 BST 6 May 2021

Alex Forsyth
Political correspondent

The amount of journalists descending on the town of Hartlepool in the past few weeks shows the level of interest in how this town will vote in their by-election.

It's a crucial test for Boris Johnson's Conservatives, whether the support they won at the general election in 2019 was a one-off, or if it's something they can sustain.

If Labour lose here, a seat they've held for decades, then it will cause questions for Sir Keir Starmer, as well as deeper questions for the party itself.

The ballot boxes are coming in now, and we should know the result in the morning.

We will soon know if traditional party allegiances are starting to fray.

Image source, Press Association

Image source, Press Association

Ballot papers are arriving at the Mill House Leisure Centre in Hartlepool for the counting overnight.

We're hoping to be able to report a result at about 04:00 BST.

Image source, Press Association

For pretty obvious reasons, weather can affect turnout on polling day.

In 2019, researchers from the University of Reading , externalanalysed turnout for the constituency of Wokingham since 1945. They found:

• Turnout tends to increase on rainy days by around 4%
• Turnout increases the colder it is – with each degree Celcius drop leading to an increase of around 0.4%
• Vote share for Conservative and right wing candidates tends to increase by around 0.5% every degree warmer it is

Scotland has reported wet, cold, windy weather today. Across the highlands of Scotland, there's been heavy snowfall.

BBC Weather has reported that in the whole of April, 3mm of rain fell in Leuchars in Scotland, but in the past six days there has been more than 10 times that.

And it's been a pretty wet day across much of England, and particularly cold for this time of year.

How many seats will Labour get in Wales?published at 22:32 British Summer Time 6 May 2021

22:32 BST 6 May 2021

Hywel Griffith
BBC News' Wales Correspondent

The question in any Welsh election is not if Labour will hold on to power in the Welsh Government, it's more how many seats they will secure.

Out of 22 years in power, they've never had an overall majority of the 60 seats in the Senedd. They won 29 seats last time, and the overall assumption this time is that their seats will be decreased a bit, potentially to the low 20s.

The Conservatives are feeling pretty confident that they might have secured second place in polling, particularly through Labour-held seats in north east Wales.

It's been harder for Plaid Cymru to break through during the pandemic, they've been largely in agreement with Labour's policies over the past year. Their leader, Adam Price, may yet find himself in power if Labour need help to govern during the next Senedd session.

Counting won't start until tomorrow. Results should be known by tomorrow night.

The polls in the Scottish election have closed and counting will begin from 09:00 GMT on Friday. You can find results as they come in here.

Counting will start for the Senedd race on Friday morning as well - and the first results for the the 60 constituency and regional seats are expected later in the day. Find the results here.

And for England's voters, the results of the England council, England mayoral, and Police and crime commissioner elections can be found in one place here.

Polls point to Sturgeon continuing, but what size her majority?published at 22:25 British Summer Time 6 May 2021

22:25 BST 6 May 2021

Sarah Smith
Scotland Editor

Snow in May doesn't appear to have deterred too many voters.

Opinion polls seem to show Nicola Sturgeon will have another term as First Minister, the question is more what size of majority she will have.

We are expecting the results of MSPs in constituency seats tomorrow. Over the weekend, we should have the results of the list seats.

The BBC News website will have all the results as they are announced and you can search the results in your area through our postcode checker.

The BBC's Election 2021 results programme will kick off at 09:00 BST on Friday and run until 22:00 BST on the BBC News Channel and BBC iPlayer.

A special programme will continue on Saturday from 13:15 to 22:00 on the BBC News Channel throughout the day and on BBC One until 18:00.

BBC local radio stations will carry results and analysis throughout the day on Friday and into the weekend, with special programmes across the network. You can find your local station's schedule here.

On BBC Radio 4, the latest results and forecasts will be broadcast on Friday on The World at One at 13.00 and PM at 17.00.

On Saturday the Today programme will have news and analysis from 07.00, and Jonny Dymond will present PM later in the day at 17.00.

BBC Radio 5 Live will have full coverage of the results across Friday and into the weekend.

Click here for more on the BBC's election coverage

Votes are in, but it's a waiting game for the resultspublished at 22:08 British Summer Time 6 May 2021

22:08 BST 6 May 2021

Jessica Parker
BBC political correspondent

Image source, PA Media

It's been a big set of elections that will take a while to digest. Not least of all because the counts are going to go on for days.

Overnight, the immediate focus will likely be what's happened in the Hartlepool by-election; it's one of the few counts taking place in the wee hours.

Has Labour held on or will Boris Johnson have taken another bite out of that so-called "red wall"?

While by-elections aren't exact litmus tests of public opinion, leaders will inevitably be judged by their party's performance in such a contest.

However given the sheer number of polls in play there will be plenty else to chew over - locally and nationally - across England, Wales and Scotland.

And, of course, the future of the United Kingdom itself has again been up for discussion with the SNP hoping this election can bolster its case for a further independence referendum.

Unlike a general election tonight there will no big, instantaneous exit poll.

This bumper set of elections is going to require a bit of patience as we wait for results to roll in.

It's 22:00 BST - and that means the polls are closed.

The last of the votes have been cast and the counting (in some places) can now begin.

Some contests will declare overnight - including the Hartlepool by-election, while the outcome of Welsh elections should be known by the end of Friday.

The West Midlands mayoral results are expected on Saturday afternoon and the outcome of the Scottish Parliament results could arrive later that evening.

Sunday, at the latest, will bring us London and West Yorkshire mayoral results - as well as more news from the English councils.

The final results for police and crime commissioners should arrive by Monday.

It's been a challenge for officials and volunteers to get polling stations ready for a safe vote amid the pandemic.

Measures have included perspex screens and sanitary wipes for booths.

The BBC put together a list of dos, don'ts and coronavirus safety measures here.

There are elections in 143 council areas in England today.

You can use our postcode checker to check all the details in your area.

Local councils are responsible for providing many of our public services. For example:

• Providing care for the elderly and disabled people
• Fixing potholes on some roads
• Collecting rubbish
• Providing libraries
• Planning applications

Local councils are partly funded by central government, but they can also raise their own revenue through:

• Council tax - a compulsory charge on properties set by local councils
• Business rates - a tax put on properties used for commercial purposes

Some parts of England are covered by county councils, which cover an entire county, and district councils, which cover a smaller area within the county.

In other areas, one single body - sometimes known as a unitary authority - carries out all local government tasks.

In some places, parish or town councils operate under district councils or unitary authorities - they can have responsibility for local issues such as allotments and public clocks.

There are around 2,000 parish or town council elections with approximately 20,000 seats available.

Read more here in our really simple guide to the local elections

Image source, PA Media

Just 30 minutes left to cast your vote in today's elections. Polls will close at 22:00 BST.