Guidance for Candidates at Parish council elections in England

After the election, the candidate should make sure that:

• all invoices are received no later than 14 calendar days after polling day1
• all invoices are paid no later than 21 calendar days after polling day2
• an election spending return reporting details of the candidate’s spending, together with a declaration confirming the return is complete and correct to the best of their knowledge and belief, is reported to the Returning Officer no later than 28 days after polling day.3

Please note that if the deadline for any of the above falls on a weekend or public holiday, the deadline will move to the next working day.4  This is included within the following deadline calculations.

You must still submit a return even if you haven’t spent any money.5 This is called a ‘nil return’.

There are consequences for failure to submit spending returns and these are set out in What happens if a spending return or declaration isn’t submitted?

You can find the contact details for your Returning Officer via the elections office using our postcode lookup.

Invoices received or paid outside of the deadlines

Invoices for your candidate spending that are received by the election agent later than the deadline of 14 days are known in the legislation as ‘unpaid claims’.

Unpaid claims cannot legally be paid unless a court order is gained granting leave to pay the claim.6 It can be an offence to pay an unpaid claim without a court order.7

Invoices that were submitted within the deadline of 14 days but remain unpaid later than the deadline of 21 days are known in the legislation as ‘disputed claims’

Disputed claims cannot legally be paid without a court order first being gained granting leave to pay the claim.8