News releases

The Electoral Commission – the independent party funding watchdog – has today published details of campaign spending for political parties and third parties who spent £250,000 or less campaigning at the Scottish Parliament elections in May this year.

A total of 23 parties contested at least one constituency or region in the Scottish Parliament elections. Those parties that spent £250,000 or less campaigning in the elections were required under the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000 (PPERA) to submit expenditure returns to the Commission by 5 August 2011. 

Three parties in Scotland – Conservative and Unionist Party, Labour Party and Scottish National Party (SNP) – spent more than £250,000 at the elections and are required to submit audited returns by 5 November 2011. These will be published by the Commission on Thursday 1 December 2011.

Eighteen parties submitted spending returns by the deadline. In total these parties spent over £395,000 campaigning during the regulated period which ran from 6 January 2011 until polling day on 5 May.

Five third parties reported spending a total of £92,987 during the campaign.

Three parties failed to submit details of their campaign spending by the deadline.

These parties are:

• National Front
• Scottish Homeland Party
• Solidarity – Scotland’s Socialist Movement

One third party, The Campaign of End All Animal Experiments, submitted their return late.

Late submission of an expenditure return without reasonable excuse is a breach of party funding rules.  The Commission is now reviewing the circumstances of these cases in line with its enforcement policy.

Campaign spending at the Scottish Parliament elections 2011

In their returns parties reported all spending against one of nine categories. The table below shows spending by category for those parties who have reported spending to date in the Scottish Parliament elections.

Further details, including a breakdown of each party’s spending by category, and copies of individual invoices and receipts, are available on the Electoral Commission website at www.electoralcommission.org.uk/party-finance/party-finance-analysis/campaign-expenditure/2011-devolved-elections

Andy O’Neill, Head of the Electoral Commission’s Scotland office said: “The information we have released today on campaign spending is an important part of ensuring full transparency in the democratic process in Scotland. We’ve published the first set of information on this today, and will publish details of those spending over £250k in December.

“By providing this information in full and on time, voters can have access to important information about the parties who are seeking their votes.  We are disappointed that three parties have failed to submit their returns to date and we will be assessing their cases in line with our enforcement policy.”

Scottish Parliament constituency candidates and individual regional candidates are also required to submit spending returns to Returning Officers. The Commission will collate and publish data on the candidates’ expenses in October.

The Commission is currently scrutinising the information submitted by parties and third parties. The Commission monitors the campaigning activity of parties, candidates and third parties at election time and will be carefully cross checking information gathered through our monitoring against the returns submitted.

The Commission also published today campaign expenditure returns for parties that spent £250,000 or less contesting the National Assembly for Wales elections in May and the parties who contested the Northern Ireland Assembly election.

Ends

Electoral Commission press office: 0131 225 0211
Out of office hours: 07789 920 414

Notes to Editors

1. The Electoral Commission is an independent body set up by the UK Parliament. Our aim is integrity and public confidence in the UK’s democratic process. We regulate party and election finance, set standards for well-run elections and are responsible for the conduct and regulations of referendums held under the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act (2000).
2. The rules for party expenditure including full details of spending limits can be found on our website at  www.electoralcommission.org.uk/elections/election-spending/party-campaign-expenditure
3. Full details of all the spending returns can be found on our website at www.electoralcommission.org.uk/party-finance/party-finance-analysis/campaign-expenditure/2011-devolved-elections
4. Where returns have not been received by the appropriate deadlines we assess each potential breach in line with our enforcement policy, which can be found at www.electoralcommission.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0003/106743/Enforcement-Policy-30March11.pdf
5. To view full details of spending down to a return item level, compare headline data with previous elections or extract expenditure information from our database for your own use, please use our PEF Online registers at https://pefonline.electoralcommission.org.uk/search/searchintro.aspx