Party finance

Overview

As the regulator of UK party and election finance, we make sure people understand and follow the rules on party and election finance.

Our role as a regulator is to make sure the laws controlling the finances of political parties are followed, and to oversee parties and other organisations and individuals engaged in campaigning. We also publish public registers containing information sent to us by political parties and others about their finances. In addition, parties are required to submit annual statements of accounts.

Please click on the topics to find more information on the following:

Donations and borrowings published

We have now published data on donations and borrowing to political parties for the second quarter of 2008 (April - June 2008). Click here for our analysis and news release.

Statement of accounts regulation

We are proposing to request that political parties and accounting units submit their statement of accounts in a format that allows for consistency and uniformity across all parties. We are asking for your views on our proposals and the closing date for responses is 3 October 2008.

Click here to view the consultation paper on statement of accounts (PDF).

Our role as regulator

Our role as regulator is to oversee the rules regulating the financing of political parties and other organisations, and individuals taking part in political campaigns. We do not have judicial powers, nor are we a prosecuting body. Nevertheless, we want the public to have confidence that we hold parties and other regulated organisations and individuals effectively to account.

We aim to:

enhance public confidence in the funding of political parties through effective regulation, while recognising that increased awareness of the financial affairs of parties may fuel public distrust of politicians and parties
avoid disproportionate regulatory burdens on political parties, while maintaining consistent standards of transparency and openness
manage the regulations in a way that acknowledges the volunteer nature of key officers of over 400 political parties, but does not allow this to become an excuse for non-compliance