Briefing Regulating Third Party Campaigning in the UK This briefing note summarises how the UK Parliament has chosen to regulate campaigning at elections by non-party campaigners or third parties people and organisations who are not standing for election, but try to influence voters choices. The note also comments briefly on potential changes to the rules. There are two sets of rules on third party campaigning. In our guidance 1 for campaigners, we call these the rules on local and general campaigns: the local rules cover campaigning for or against a particular candidate the general rules cover campaigning for or against parties or groups of candidates 1. Local campaigns What the rules do The local rules 2 place a limit on what people and organisations can spend on campaigning for or against a particular candidate in a ward, constituency or local electoral area. The spending limit covers spending on most campaign activities, including leaflets, meetings and websites. The spending limit depends on the type of election. For a UK general election, the limit is 500 and applies from the date Parliament is dissolved. There is no spending limit on campaigning that happens before this date. For local government elections, the limit is set by a formula linked to the number of electors in the ward (each elector adds 0.5 pence to the limit), and covers a period of around six weeks before the election. If there are 1,000 electors on the register then the limit will be 55. The rules in practice It is an offence to exceed the spending limit on local campaigning. There is no requirement for local campaigners to report on their spending, and the Electoral Commission s statutory remit does not include monitoring or securing compliance 1 Overview of non-party campaigns, Electoral Commission guidance http://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/ data/assets/pdf_file/0007/105937/to-campaignnpc.pdf 2 Representation of the People Act 1983, s.75, and equivalent legislation in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
with the rules on local campaigning. We advise people who want to complain about alleged breaches to contact the police. We do not hold data on the number of allegations of breaches of the rules on local campaigns, or the number of prosecutions. 2. General campaigns What the rules do The general rules 3 apply to spending at major elections 4 by people and organisations campaigning for or against: specific political parties, parties or candidates that support particular policies or issues, or particular types of candidate. Where a campaign is clearly focused on promoting or opposing the election of a single named candidate in a constituency, it will be covered by the local rules and not the general ones. Where material refers to a high-profile candidate such as a party leader, the facts and context will determine whether it is treated as local or general campaigning. The general rules only apply to election material that is, material (such as leaflets, adverts or websites) that (i) is made available to the public, and (ii) can reasonably be seen as intended to promote or oppose the electoral success of a party or group of candidates, or to enhance their standing. The general rules do not apply to other campaigning activity such as rallies, polling and media work. Since election material is defined by perceived rather than actual intent, something can be regulated as election material even if it is actually intended to achieve another purpose, such as raising awareness of an issue. In this respect the scope of the UK rules is wider than that of the rules in the USA 5. What the rules mean Any campaigner can spend up to 10,000 on election material in England, and up to 5,000 in each of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, without needing to register with us. If campaigners intend to spend more than this at a regulated election, then: 3 Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000, Part VI. 4 UK general elections, and elections to the European Parliament, Scottish Parliament, Welsh Assembly and Northern Ireland Assembly. The rules cover campaigning in the 365 days before UK general elections, and the four months before the other elections. 5 Following a Supreme Court judgment, the US rules cover third party advertising that is classed as campaigning, but not advertising about specific issues, with the distinction relying on the wording used in the advert.
they have to register with us. There are some restrictions on who can register for instance, individuals must be resident in the UK or on an electoral register they have to comply with limits on what they spend on election material they can only accept donations towards regulated spending from permissible sources with links to the UK they have to report their spending and donations after the election, and we publish their reports How the spending limits work The limits on what registered campaigners can spend at each election are around 5% of what a political party contesting every seat can spend. For instance, at a UK Parliamentary general election, where a political party contesting every seat in the United Kingdom can spend a total of 19.5m in the 365 days before the poll, a registered third party campaigner can spend up to 793,500 in England, 108,000 in Scotland, 60,000 in Wales and 27,000 in Northern Ireland in the same period. There are no sub-limits on how election material is used within England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, so campaigners can spend significant amounts in a single constituency as long as the material relates to a party or group of candidates, rather than an individual candidate. The rules in practice Past levels of general campaigning The level of reported general campaigning at UK Parliamentary general elections is growing, but is low in comparison to the spending limits explained above. At the 2005 UK general election, 25 campaigners registered, and reported aggregate spending of around 1.8m. Political parties spent around 42m on national campaigning over the same period. At the 2010 general election, 33 campaigners registered. Ten of them did not report any spending, and the remaining 23 reported aggregate spending of around 3m. Political parties spent around 31m on national campaigning over the same period. The Appendix below shows the spending of each campaigner in each part of the UK: Only two campaigners at the 2010 UK general election spent more than 50% of the 793,500 spending limit on general campaigning in England, and one campaigner spent more than 50% of the limit on general campaigning in Wales and Northern Ireland. Regulated spending on general campaigning at other UK elections is also generally low as a proportion of the current limits. At the 2009 European Parliament election, the spending limit on general campaigning in England was around 160,000 for each campaigner. A total of eight registered campaigners reported aggregate spending in
England of 330,000 with only one campaigner spending more than 50% of the limit. At the 2011 Scottish Parliament election, where the spending limit for general campaigning was 75,800, five registered campaigners spent an aggregated total of around 93,000. At the 2011 Welsh Assembly election, the spending limit was 30,000 and five registered campaigners spent an aggregate total of around 29,000. Enforcement activity At elections where the rules on general campaigning apply, we monitor campaigning activity as part of our wider campaign monitoring role, and where appropriate we offer advice on the rules to campaigners. For instance, where we identify potentially significant campaigning by an unregistered organisation, we contact them to ensure they are aware of the rules and the requirement to register. We have carried out compliance casework in respect of allegations relating to general campaigning. In some cases this has resulted in registered campaigners submitting amended spending returns. Breaches of the general campaigning rules (such as failing to register if spending more than the threshold, exceeding a spending limit, or failing to provide a spending return) are criminal offences. We have only been able to impose civil sanctions in respect of breaches occurring since December 2010. We have not yet imposed any civil sanction in respect of the rules on general third party campaigning. 3. Potential changes to the rules We assess proposals for changes to the rules on party and election finance against the criteria of workability, transparency and the Commission s principles of trust, participation and no undue influence. Commission review of the current system We have completed an internal review of the current rules on party and election finance. This identified changes which will make the system more effective (by increasing transparency or addressing gaps in the current rules) or more proportionate (by reducing burdens on those we regulate). We tested the emerging recommendations from this review with political parties and other interested bodies. One of the changes we recommended to Government proposed that: The rules on PPERA non-party campaigning that is intended to influence voters should be changed so that they more closely reflect the scope of rules for political parties by covering events, media work and polling, as well as election material. It would be necessary to review the implications for the campaign spending limits set by PPERA;
And A new order-making power should be created to enable the Government to update the rules on PPERA non-party campaigning as campaign methods change over time. As with other PPERA and RPA order-making powers, it should apply either after consultation with the Commission or to give effect to a recommendation of the Commission. The report containing our recommendations for change can be found on our website http://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/ data/assets/pdf_file/0008/157499/pef- Regulatory-Review-2013.pdf. Potential major changes to the current system Our review has focused on the current party and election finance rules. The November 2011 report on party finance by the Committee on Standards in Public Life 6 proposed that a cap on donations to political parties should be introduced. The CSPL noted that a donation cap could be expected to lead to funding being diverted to other ways of influencing the political process, including third party campaigns. In our view, it is likely that the current rules on third party campaigning would need to be tightened if a donation cap on parties is introduced. The Electoral Commission February 2013 (Updated November 2013) 6 Committee on Standards in Public Life, Political party finance: Ending the big donor culture, (November, 2011) http://www.public-standards.gov.uk/wpcontent/uploads/2012/11/13th_report Political_party_finance_FINAL_PDF_VERSION_18 _11_11.pdf
Appendix Third Party Name England ( ) Scotland ( ) Wales ( ) Northern Ireland ( ) Total UK ( ) UNISON - The Public Service Union 671,167 0 699 0 671,866 Vote For A Change Ltd 478,442 52,962 35,906 16,159 583,469 Hope not Hate Ltd 310,634 4,082 4,515 0 319,231 The Democratic Reform Company 241,419 20,967 33,142 4,461 299,989 IFAW in Action 169,440 18,756 12,716 5,722 206,634 Political Animal Lobby Limited 149,763 9,739 13,041 0 172,543 Dr Brian Harold May 151,948 0 0 0 151,948 The Young Britons' Foundation 113,044 11,350 7,218 3,248 134,860 National Union of Teachers 107,629 0 14,307 0 121,936 Public and Commercial Services Union 55,469 20,699 5,231 3,394 84,794 The League Against Cruel Sports 47,298 10,488 3,550 1,597 62,933 Unite Against Fascism 30,550 2,872 1,436 0 34,858 Vote-OK 18,188 0 957 0 19,145 Unite 11,850 2,539 2,539 0 16,928 Vote Cruelty Free 12,578 1,381 920 460 15,339 Mr Patrick Evershed 14,056 0 0 0 14,056 A Minority Pastime Limited 10,969 0 0 0 10,969 Union of Construction, Allied Trades and Technicians 10,781 0 0 0 10,781 38 Degrees 7,748 671 420 168 9,007 Uncaged Campaigns Ltd 6,518 471 696 0 7,685 Mr Robin Wight 6,000 0 0 0 6,000 The Campaign to End all Animal Experiments 4,916 540 360 180 5,996 Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers (USDAW) 4,101 544 296 0 4,941 Wales TUC 0 0 4,298 0 4,298 Total 2,634,507 158,061 142,248 35,389 2,970,205