Legislation on political parties

We regulate the registration and finances of political parties. The rules we apply are set out in the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000 (PPERA) and significant changes have been made by the Political Parties and Elections Act 2009 (PPE Act) (to read more about these changes, please visit our 'Changes to the law' page).

This page provides information on:

• registration of political parties
• donations and loans
• statements of accounts
• campaign spending

Registration of political parties

Groups that want to use a party name on a ballot paper must register with us as political parties.

We maintain a register of political parties and other organisations which can be viewed through the Registration Search on our PEF Online database,

If you are thinking of registering a political party, please read our guide on registering a political party (PDF), available also in Welsh (PDF).

We recommend you read our Guidance on registering as a political party before completing an application form.

For more information, please visit our guidance page.

Donations and loans

There are controls on the donations that parties can accept under part IV of PPERA. The Electoral Administration Act (EAA) 2006 extended these controls to loans and credit facilities.

There is no cap to the amount an individual or organisation can donate or lend to a political party. However, the money must come from a permissible source if it is over £500.

Registered political parties are required to report quarterly donation and loan returns to us within 30 days of the end of each calendar quarter. There is also a requirement to report weekly during a UK Parliamentary general election.

We publish donations and loans reported by political parties on our PEF Online register.

We provide guidance for political parties on donations and loans.

Permissible sources

When parties receive a donation or a loan above £500, they must verify that the donor or lender is permissible.

Under Section 54 of PPERA, eligible donors or lenders are:

• an individual registered in a UK electoral register (including bequests)
• a UK registered company which is incorporated within the European Union and carries on business in the UK
• a GB registered political party
• a UK registered trade union
• a UK registered building society
• a UK registered limited liability partnership that carries on business in the UK
• a UK registered friendly society
• a UK based unincorporated association that carries on business or other activities in the UK

Additionally, certain kinds of UK-based trusts can also donate to political parties. Parties must not, however, enter into loans with trusts.

When a party receives a donation, it has 30 days to decide whether the donor/lender is permissible.

If a party finds the donor is impermissible, it can return the money to the donor if within 30 days from the day the donation was received.

If a party accepts a donation which is later found by us to be from an impermissible source, the money will have to be forfeited and paid into the Consolidated Fund.

If the loan or credit facility is from an impermissible source, the transaction is void.

Please follow this link to find out more about Forfeiture.

We provide guidance for political parties on donations and loans.

For more information, please visit our guidance for political parties page.

Reporting donations and loans

Parties are only required to report donations and loans:

• over £7,500 if accepted by the party central office
• over £1,500 if accepted by one of the party's accounting units.

Donations or loans below the thresholds become reportable if the total amount received from the same source within the same calendar year exceeds the threshold (aggregation).

Political Parties must report donations and loans on a quarterly basis to us within 30 days of the end of each calendar quarter.

Details of all donations and loans are published through our PEF Online register within 20 working days after the deadline. 

Parties that do not receive donations or loans are required to submit a "nil return", a statement that no donation or loan was received. Parties that submit four consecutive nil returns (either four nil donation returns or four nil loan returns) become exempt from future quarterly reporting untill they receive a reportable donation/loan. 

Parties that fail to submit their donations or loans report on time may be subject to sanctions, including fixed monetary penalties.

Please follow this link to find out more about our enforcement action. 

We provide guidance for political parties on donations and loans.

For more details on how to report donations and loans,  please visit our guidance for political parties page.

Northern Ireland

Political parties in Northern Ireland are subject to the donation and loan controls with two important differences:

• Northern Ireland parties may receive donations from certain sources in the Republic of Ireland.
• Donations reported to us by parties in Northern Ireland are kept confidentially and do not appear on a public register.

The confidentiality of donations/loans to political parties in Northern Ireland will last until 2010 in the first instance but may be extended by the Secretary of State.

Guidance on donations and loans is available for political parties in Northern Ireland (PDF).

Statements of accounts

All registered political parties must submit an annual statement of accounts to us and we will publish them within 20 working days of their deadline.

Political parties whose gross income and total expenditure is below £250,000 are required to submit their statement of accounts within four months of the end of their financial year.

Accounting units whose income or expenditure is above £25,000 are also required to send the accounts to us.

Parties and accounting units whose income or expenditure is above £250,000 are required to ensure their statement of accounts is audited and have to submit it within six months and seven days of the end of their financial year.

Parties and accounting units that fail to submit their statement of accounts on time may be subject to sanctions, including fixed monetary penalties.

Please follow this link to find out more about our enforcement action. 

We are working to introduce regulation on statement of accounts and to standardise the format. For more information, please visit our regulation page. 

To access and view all accounts submitted by parties and accounting units from 2002, please visit our statement of accounts register. 

To find out more on how to prepare and submit a statement of accounts, please visit our Guidance for political parties page.

Campaign spending

During relevant elections, there are limits on the amount political parties can spend campaigning.

Parties that fail to submit the campaign expenditure return or do so after the statutory deadline may be subject to sanctions, including fixed monetary penalties.

We provide guidance for party treasurers and campaign officer about the campaign spending rules (PDF).

We publish details of all returns within 20 working days of the deadlines. This can be viewed through our register of campaign expenditure on PEF Online.

Political party campaigning for a referendum must comply with controls on spending by a permitted participants in a referendum.

Where a political party campaigns in a relevant election but it has not put forward any candidates of its own, it may need to comply with controls on spending by third parties.