In the run up to the UK Parliamentary general election in June, a number of voluntary organisations got in touch with us worried about the rules for non-party campaigning at the election, and how they might apply retrospectively. But in many cases the organisations were not affected by the rules and would be unlikely to be affected by them if another snap election was called. Here’s why:
The rules
This is how it works: any individual or organisation is entitled to campaign for or against a political party or a category of candidates, or on a political issue at an election. If you do this then you are a non-party campaigner, and your spending might be regulated under the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act.
The UK Parliament passed this election law in 2000, and amended it in 2014. It is only those campaigners that intend to spend above a certain amount – £10,000 in Scotland – that must register with the Commission. This means that campaigners carrying out a limited amount of campaigning are unlikely to need to register. The rules apply during the period preceding certain elections, known as the ‘regulated period’.
The reality is that, in many cases, non-party campaigners will not spend enough to be subject to the rules. Where they do spend enough, only campaigning which targets voters and the public is covered by the rules. So the costs of activities such as lobbying Ministers to make changes to government policy, or activities aimed at your members, will not even be covered by these rules.
To fall under these rules, money must be spent on campaigning activities that are:
- reasonably regarded as intended to influence people to vote for or against one or more political parties, or any particular category of candidates; and
- public facing.
Money spent on campaigning activities such as adverts, websites and public events that meet both of the above tests is considered to be ‘regulated spending’.
You can find more information on the non-party campaigner rules in our guidance.
The regulated period
The regulated period for a UK Parliamentary general election usually starts 365 days before polling day and four months ahead of a Scottish Parliament election – but in an early general election such as the one we have just had in June, the election is typically announced only six weeks before polling day. In this case most of the regulated period, therefore, has already happened before the election has been announced.
We appreciate that, for some, this retrospective regulated period will have presented a challenge. However, in many cases, none of an organisation’s activities before the election was called will have met the tests to count as regulated spending.
Clearly, a campaigner is very unlikely to be reasonably regarded as intending to influence people to vote in an election when they do not know that the election is happening. Therefore, an activity is very unlikely to have met the tests and be counted as regulated spending with regard to the 2017 UK Parliamentary general election if it occurred before Theresa May announced the election.
The most likely way for spending before then to have met the tests is if it was reasonably regarded as intended to influence people to vote in another election held during the regulated period between 9 June 2016 and 8 June 2017, for example the Scottish council elections.
If you did not campaign in any elections, then it is very unlikely that any of your spending before the UK Parliamentary general election was announced will have met the tests for regulated spending.
We hope that this reassures many charities and voluntary organisations that the prospect of retrospective regulated periods is not as worrying as it may at first seem and that the non-party campaigning rules are focused on bringing transparency to our elections. After all, why wouldn’t we want to see who is spending significant sums of money to influence voters, whether that’s political parties, big business, lobby groups or the third sector?
Last modified on 11 February 2021
