Legislation on political finances

As part of our role, we provide information and guidance about laws on political finances and the registration of political parties.

We provide information specific to:

Third parties are individuals or organisations, other than political parties and candidates, that campaign during an election.

Permitted participants are registered referendum campaigners.

Regulated donees include members of political parties, holders of relevant elective office and members associations. Members associations are organisations wholly or mainly made up of members of a single political party.

For more information, please visit our guidance page.

Acts

Two Acts of Parliament govern political finances. These set out the rules that must be followed by political parties, candidates, third parties/permitted participants and regulated donees.

The Act that governs the conduct of candidates is the Representation of the People Act 1983 (RPA). This Act is not currently available online but should be available in local libraries.

The other important Act is the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000 (PPERA). This sets out the rules for political parties, third parties, permitted participants and regulated donees.

There have been changes to this legislation since the year 2000. The Electoral Administration Act 2006 (EAA) has amended setions of the RPA and PPERA.

This factsheet explains the changes to electoral law in England resulting fom the Electoral Administration Act 2006 and related legislation.

Further amends are proposed by the Political Party and Elections Bill which is likely to bring changes to the legislation on political finances.

Regulations

In addition to acts of Parliament, there are other sources of rules on political finances. These include statutory instruments, which can be found on the Office of Public Sector Information's website.