Guidance for Candidates at Parish council elections in England

After the election, you should make sure that you submit your 

• election spending return
• declaration confirming the return is complete and correct to the best of your knowledge and belief

to the Returning Officer at your local authority no later than 28 calendar days after polling day.1

Details of the requirements of the spending return and the forms can be found on the previous page. You can find the contact details for your Returning Officer through your local elections office using our postcode lookup tool.

You must still submit a return even if you haven’t spent any money.2 This is called a ‘nil return’. There are consequences for failing to submit spending returns and declarations. These are set out in What happens if you don’t follow the law?