Candidates at parish council elections must follow certain laws about how much they can spend, and what they must report after the election. There are no donation controls at parish elections.
Election agents are not required at parish council elections. The candidate has the main responsibility for complying with these laws, even if they appoint an agent to help manage spending.
As the candidate, you should ensure you understand the rules and that all spending is properly recorded and reported.
After the election, you must sign a declaration to say that your spending return is complete and correct to the best of your knowledge.
Spending
The rules apply to spending on activities to promote your candidacy, or to criticise other candidates, during a particular period in the run-up to the election.
This period is called the ‘regulated period’. When we use the term ‘regulated period’ we mean the time when spending limits and rules apply.
Candidate spending includes any expenses incurred, whether on goods, services, property or facilities, for the purposes of the your election during the regulated period.
By ‘incur’ we mean make a legal commitment to spend money, such as confirming an order.
This includes:
items or services bought before the regulated period begins, but used during it
the value items or services given to you free of charge or at a non-commercial discount of more than 10% - known as ‘notional spending’
There are rules covering:
how much you can spend
which activities count towards your spending limit
deadlines for receiving and paying invoices
what records you must keep
how and when you report your spending
Candidate spending is often known as ‘expenses’. Sometimes, people think this means that spending can be reclaimed from the local council, or from us, the Electoral Commission. This is not the case. You are not entitled to recover any spending from public funds.
You can find out more information in our guidance about candidate spending.