Political parties and candidates will face greater scrutiny of their finances and spending, the Electoral Commission announced today, as it unveiled plans to enforce standards in democracy.

Among a range of measures to boost public confidence and integrity in the democratic process, the Commission announced it was planning to actively track the campaigning activities of political parties and candidates at election time. Teams of compliance officials will collect 'on the ground' intelligence in areas where elections are taking place to better vet campaign spending returns and identify any breaches of electoral law. The approach is being adopted by the Commission for this years Northern Ireland Assembly, Scottish Parliament and National Assembly for Wales elections, with a view to extending it to the elections in 2008.  The Commission will also be closely examining whether measures introduced last year by the Government to improve the security of postal voting have been effective.  The results of these initiatives will be reflected in the Commissions reports on the conduct of this years elections.

These measures are part of a move by the Commission towards a more rigorous, investigative approach to enforcing the law following the completion of a full cycle of elections under rules introduced by the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000 (PPERA). This will include a strengthened compliance team, fining political parties as a matter of course for submitting their accounts late, as well as closer work with prosecuting authorities to bring parties and candidates to book if they break laws on funding, spending or conduct during elections.

To improve the management of elections and voter registration, the Commission announced it would publish in early 2008 a first round of indicators of local authorities performance on voter registration, followed by further performance indicators on elections management in 2008 and 2009.  The Commission will also put in place a financial reporting regime to examine the budgets of electoral administrators. To support this, and to aid the delivery of advice and guidance, the Commission has opened regional offices in England. These will help the regulator forge stronger relationships with elections staff, police forces, and politicians locally, building on the success of Commission offices in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Speaking at a Parliamentary event to launch the new agenda, Sam Younger, Chairman of the Electoral Commission, said:

"Since the Electoral Commission was established six years ago, we have made great strides in bringing transparency to modern politics. As a result of our regulation, the public knows a great deal more about where political parties get their money from and what they spend it on.

But it is time for us to move into the next phase as a regulator following a full cycle of elections under our watch. Parties and candidates have had plenty of  time to get used to the laws on finances and spending. They will, in the future, be facing greater scrutiny from us, more investigative work by our compliance team, and consequences if they break the rules.

At the same time we will continue, and build on, our work to ensure voters benefit from elections that are well-run, free and fair. We already have a strong track record in providing advice and guidance for electoral administrators and the Government. We will build on this by setting and enforcing performance standards, championing those who do well, and highlighting where performance needs to improve.

And we will continue to speak out where we see problems in the law. Electoral fraud remains a concern, which is why I continue to urge the Government to introduce individual voter registration as a priority - a call we first made in 2003.

The Commission also announced today:

• an investigation into the level of accuracy of the electoral register (the results of phase one - a London-based pilot will be available in summer 2007); and

• that as a result of the Commissions shift in focus, some activities would be phased out, including its grant scheme for voluntary and community sector organisations to promote voter participation.

The Commission also announced that it would be working with the Government to plan how the  Boundary Committee for England can become independent from the Commission.

Notes to Editors

1. The Electoral Commission published today (19 March 2007) a summary of its future plans and its views on the recommendations in the Committee on Standards in Public Lifes recent report Review of the Electoral Commission, which was published on 18 January 2007. The documents are available on the Commissions website, www.electoralcommission.org.uk

2. The Commission is to review the operation of new measures introduced in the Electoral Administration Act 2006 to reduce electoral fraud which require postal and proxy voters to give their signature and date of birth for cross-checks over the course of this May's local elections. The report will be published later this year.

3. The Electoral Commission is an independent body which reports directly to Parliament and was established by the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000.  Its aim is to achieve integrity and public confidence in the UKs democratic process.

4. The Commission has opened regional offices in York, Coventry, London and Exeter.

5. The Electoral Administration Act received royal assent on 11 July 2006.

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