We provide guidance for candidates and agents on expenditure and donation controls. We also provide forms for submitting candidates' expenses returns.
Candidates are subject to controls on the election expenses that they incur in the relevant regulated period before an election, and are regulated by the Representation of the People Act 1983 (RPA).
For more information, please see our regulations page.
European Parliamentary election
The regulated period for the 2009 European Parliamentary elections ran from 5 February 2009 to 4 June 2009. Parties and non-party list candidates (or candidates in Northern Ireland) were subject to expenditure controls during this period. For more information, please see our guidance:
- party expenditure guidance (PDF), or the Welsh version (PDF)
- guidance for candidates and agents (PDF), the Welsh version (PDF) and Northern Ireland candidates and agents guidance (PDF)
- erratum sheet to be inserted into the guidance for registered parties, candidates and agents (PDF)
- guidance on expenditure and donations for independent candidates (PDF), and the Welsh version of the guidance for independent candidates (PDF)
Please report expenditure using the following forms:
- Northern Ireland candidate expenditure return (XLS)
- Northern Ireland agent expenditure declaration form (PDF)
- Northern Ireland candidate expenditure declaration form (PDF)
- Great Britiain candidate expenditure return (XLS)
- personal expenses return for party list candidates (PDF)
Local government election
For guidance documents for local government candidates and agents, please see our page for electoral administrators. We provide the following forms and guidance dealing with local government election expenditure for England and Wales:
- candidate expenditure return (XLS)
- candidate expenditure return guidance (PDF)
- candidate declaration form (PDF)
- agent declaration form (PDF)
UK Parliamentary by-election
We provide the following guidance:
Please see the following forms dealing with candidate returns:
