Under the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000 (PPERA), there are laws on fundraising and spending that political parties must follow in the run-up to certain elections.  

This guidance provides information on the regulated period, spending limits, campaign spending, reporting requirements and deadlines for the Scottish Parliamentary election on 7 May 2026.

Different controls apply to constituency and independent regional candidates. We issue separate guidance for those candidates and their agents.

When parties issue election material it must contain details known as an imprint. We publish separate guidance on imprints.

Terms and expressions we use  

In this guidance, we use ‘must’ when we refer to a specific requirement. We use ‘should’ for items we consider to be minimum good practice, but which are not legal requirements.

We use ‘you’ or ‘the responsible person’ to refer to the person who is responsible for campaign spending. This will be the registered campaigns officer if one has been appointed, or the registered treasurer if not.

Translations and other formats  

For information on obtaining this publication in another language or in Braille, please contact the Electoral Commission:  

Tel: 0333 103 1928

Email: [email protected]  

Campaign spending is what your party spends on certain activities to promote the party or criticise other parties during a particular period in the run-up to the election. 

This period is called the ‘regulated period’. The regulated period is the time when the spending limits and rules apply.

The regulated period for the 2026 Scottish Parliamentary election begins on 7 January 2026, and runs to polling day on 7 May 2026.1  

If your party is standing candidates on a regional list, spending on activities to promote your party list candidates will also be party campaign spending.

Any spending you incur which promotes your party or any of its candidates in the regulated period is included, unless that spending was reported in candidate return or a recall petition return.

This includes spending promoting your party in the Scottish Parliamentary election, but also spending promoting your party in any other elections in Scotland during the regulated period.

The maximum amount that you can spend on campaigning during the regulated period is based on how many constituencies and regions your party is contesting in the election.1

There are 73 constituencies in Scotland and 8 regions. There are 7 seats in each of the 8 regions, making a total of 56 regional seats. A party can field up to 12 candidates per region.  

Your spending limit is £12,000 for each constituency your party contests, plus £80,000 for each region your party contests.

The regional spending limit applies even if you do not field a full list of candidates in the region.

The spending limit is a national limit, which means you do not have to attribute your spending between constituencies and regions.

If your party is contesting every constituency and region, the total spending limit will be £1,516,000:

For more information on the 73 constituencies and 8 regions, please see the Boundaries Commission for Scotland’s maps of constituencies and regions for the Scottish Parliamentary election in 2026:

Second Review of Scottish Parliament Boundaries | Scottish Boundary Commission

Parties standing joint candidates with another party 

Some candidates stand under a joint description, meaning they can stand for two or more registered political parties at once. These candidates are called 'joint candidates'.

If your party is standing a joint candidate, the full £12,000 for their constituency is not added when calculating your spending limit. Instead, you add £12,000 divided by the number of parties that the candidate is standing for.2

For example, if the candidate is standing under a joint description shared with your party and one other, then you and the other party both have £6,000 from that constituency.

Who is responsible for party campaign spending?

A party’s registered treasurer is usually responsible for making sure that the party follows the law on campaign spending.1 However, if a party has registered a campaigns officer, this person is responsible for campaign spending instead.2

You can appoint deputies to help with some of your responsibilities. You can do this on PEF Online or by using Form RP5.

Authorising and paying campaign expenses

Only the responsible person registered with us, their deputies, and people authorised in writing by the responsible person can incur and pay for party campaign spending.3

By ‘incur’ we mean making a legal commitment to spend the money.

For example, someone may be authorised to spend money on particular items, or up to a particular amount.

You incur election spending when you enter a transaction with a supplier and become liable to pay for the item, goods or service they have provided to you. For example, you hire a printing company to print leaflets, or you sign a contract to rent an office.

Payments are often incurred and paid at the same time. For example, if you buy something online or in a shop.

Sometimes spending is incurred before it is paid. For example, if you engage an events company to run your manifesto launch, the spending is incurred when you engage their services. The payment is made later, once they invoice you after the event. 

Spending by or on behalf of the party promoting regional party list candidates will count as party campaign spending. Therefore, these expenses must be authorised by the responsible person.

These laws are in place to make sure that you can be in control of your party spending and accurately record and report it. It is important you have sufficient processes in place to allow you to keep track of spending. 

You should make sure that your volunteers and campaigners know who can and cannot incur and pay costs.

Parties with accounting units 

Your party may have accounting units registered with us, such as constituency parties. Although they report their accounts separately, accounting units remain part of the party. 

Any spending by or on behalf of an accounting unit is spending by the party. It must therefore be incurred and paid by someone authorised by the responsible person, and must appear in the spending return along with receipts for any items of over £200.

Any transfer between accounting units, or between an accounting unit and the central party, is an internal transfer. This includes for example any gifts, loans or sales.

This means it is not possible for an accounting unit to donate to the central party. Instead, this would be the party moving around its assets internally.

Similarly, if an accounting unit provides or transfers something to the central party for use in the campaign, this is not notional spending. This is because, since the accounting unit is a part of the party, it cannot provide or transfer anything that the party does not already own.

In this situation, the central party would be using something it already owned. Therefore if it was the first time the party had used it, the spending would count as party spending in this election – see Use of items. 

You must appoint an election agent for each region the party stands candidates in.1 The election agent is responsible for making payments for some personal expenses incurred by the regional party list candidates. 

Personal expenses include the reasonable travel and living expenses (such as hotel costs) of the regional party list candidate.

Once they are officially a candidate, a regional party list candidate can only pay for personal expenses up to a cost of £900. The election agent is responsible for making payments for personal expenses for regional party list candidates over £900.2

Personal expenses also include expenses relating to the party list candidate’s disability. However, the candidate can pay any amount of these expenses.

More detail can be found in Personal expenses in the candidate guidance. 

Campaign spending is what the party spends on certain activities to promote itself or its candidates, or criticise other parties, during the regulated period.1

If your party is standing candidates on a regional list, party campaign spending will also include spending on activities to promote the party list candidates.

Spending promoting a particular constituency candidate will be covered by the separate candidate spending laws – please see Party spending and candidate spending below.

Campaign spending includes any items or services used during the regulated period, including:

• items or services bought before the regulated period begins, but used during it
• items or services given to the party free of charge or at a non-commercial discount of more than 10% and then used in your campaign (see Notional spending).

All party spending must be reported to the Electoral Commission after the election.2

Activities included in campaign spending are:3

• party political broadcasts, if your party is entitled to one
• party advertising of any kind. For example, street banners, websites or YouTube videos
• unsolicited material sent to voters about the party. For example, letters or leaflets you send that are not in response to specific queries
• the manifesto and other documents setting out your party’s policies
• market research or other methods of finding out which party people intend to vote for (where the research involves identified candidates however, it may be candidate spending)
• party press conferences or other dealings with the media
• party rallies and events, including the cost of people’s attendance, and any goods, services or facilities provided
• transport in connection with promoting or publicising your party

Which costs are included?

You must include any relevant costs associated with each activity. For example, if you are producing leaflets or advertising, you must include the design and distribution costs. You must also include overheads or administrative costs which are associated with each activity. 

All costs must include VAT, even if you can recover VAT payments. 

Guidance on the relevant costs associated with each activity is included in the following sections. It is not an exhaustive list. If you have queries about specific overhead costs, please contact us for advice.

Costs associated with obtaining information and targeting or identifying voters, including database costs

This includes the cost of accessing, obtaining, purchasing, developing or maintaining:

• IT software or contact databases
• any information, by whatever means

that is used to facilitate the sending of unsolicited material to voters.

It includes the cost of accessing, obtaining or developing data sets, including data analytics to target voters by whatever means, including the cost of software, or agencies, organisations or others that identify groups of voters, by whatever means.

It includes the cost of any services to identify voters that are purchased, developed or provided before the regulated period, but are used to target voters during the regulated period.

Where information or access to information is obtained from a third party, the commercial cost of obtaining that information from the third party is included.

Costs associated with preparing, producing or distributing unsolicited material to voters, including via digital means

This includes the cost of use, or hire, of any:

• agency, individual or organisation
• services provided by any agency, individual or organisation
• premises or facilities
• equipment

that is used to:

• prepare, produce or facilitate the production of the unsolicited material
• disseminate by distribution or otherwise the unsolicited material, including any cost attributable to increasing the visibility of material via any means.

It includes the cost of delivering material by any means including electronic means or the physical distribution of the material, for example the cost of envelopes and stamps or the purchase of a system for sending emails.

It includes the cost of accessing, developing and maintaining any digital or other network which promotes or increases the visibility of unsolicited material on any platform.

It includes the cost of oversight and maintenance of all social media, digital or other forms of distribution of unsolicited material. This includes the maintenance of all social media accounts, including if they are maintained by another entity/individual.

Election address

Each party’s nominating officer is entitled to free postage to deliver two election addresses to voters in the constituency. The address must only contain matters relating to the election.1

The costs of producing these election addresses must be reported as party spending.

Other costs that are included

It includes the cost of any rights or licensing fee for any image used in producing unsolicited material.

It includes the cost of paper or any other medium on which unsolicited material is printed.

It includes the cost of purchase and use of any equipment in connection with:

• preparation, production or facilitating the production of the unsolicited material
• dissemination by distribution or otherwise of the unsolicited material

It includes the cost of purchase, hire or use of:

• photocopying equipment
• printing equipment

for use in printing unsolicited material.

It includes a relevant proportion of the cost of:

• office accommodation
• business rates
• electricity
• phone rental and internet access

associated with the preparation, production, dissemination and distribution of unsolicited material.

It includes the cost of food and/or accommodation for any individual who provides services in connection with unsolicited material for the party where that is paid for by the party or reimbursed by the party.

Costs that are not included 

It does not include any cost associated with the obtaining of data as permitted under any statute or regulation.

Activities not included in campaign spending are:1

• local newsletters about elected representatives or prospective candidates
• material sent only to your members
• expenses met out of public funds. For example, security costs for VIP visits
• permanent, fixed term or temporary staff costs where the staff member has a direct employment contract with the party
• people’s travel, food and accommodation costs while they campaign, unless you reimburse them
• reasonable expenses attributable to the protection of persons or property, at rallies or other public events – for example hiring security at a party campaign rally2
• Reasonable costs attributable to an individual’s disability (including candidates, party staff and volunteers, or voters) – for example, providing a party canvasser with a sight disability specialist equipment or dual screens to assist them in telephone canvassing, or a sign language interpreter at a campaign event
• Any reasonable costs relating to translating to another language from English – for example, hiring a translator to translate campaign material from English into any other language
• volunteer time3
• office running costs, except costs that are higher than usual because of campaigning, such as telephone bills
• party conferences4
• anything which a candidate properly declares on their spending return5
• anything which a registered recall petition campaigner properly declares on their spending return6
• regional party list candidates’ deposits
• postage costs relating to the free election address promoting the party or regional party list candidates

Volunteer time

Sometimes you may not be sure if someone is a volunteer or if their time should be treated as notional spending. For example, they may offer similar services professionally to the ones they are performing for you.

They will be a volunteer if:

• their employer is not paying them for the time they spend on your campaign, or
• they are using their annual leave, or
• where they are self-employed, you won't benefit from any professional insurances they hold

If they use specialist equipment or materials, you should consider whether their use is notional spending.

Sometimes you might use something in your campaign that you did not have to spend money on, because it was provided to you as a benefit in kind, for free or at a non-commercial discount. 

For example, this could be because the supplier supports your campaign. 

Some examples of a benefit in kind could be:

• space in a hall for an event
• printing
• providing volunteers with food and transport

When this happens, the full commercial value of what you used counts towards your spending limit and must be reported.1  

This is called ‘notional spending’. 

There are five tests that must all be met in order for an item (i.e., goods, a facility or a service) to count as notional spending:

1. it is transferred to you, or provided for your use or benefit
2. you receive the item free of charge or at a non-commercial discount of more than 10%
3. the difference in value between the commercial rate and what you pay is over £200
4. the item is made use of by or on behalf of the party
5. it would have been campaign spending if you had incurred the spending (see What activities count as spending?)

This means that any notional spending will also be a donation to the party if it is over £500, and must be reported separately. Please see our guidance for more information on donations to political parties.

If you receive items free of charge, then you must record the full market value of the item if it’s more than £200.

If you receive items at a non-commercial discount of more than 10% and the difference in value is more than £200, you must include the value of the discount as notional spending. The amount you actually pay must be included as normal party spending.

Commercial and non-commercial discounts

Notional spending is only applicable to non-commercial discounts which are special discounts given to you, specifically, by suppliers. This includes any special rate which is not available on the open market.

These are different to commercial discounts available to all customers, such as discounts for bulk orders or seasonal reductions. Items, goods and services purchased with commercial discounts will not be treated as notional spending. 

Made use of by or on behalf of the party

If you are provided with an item but you do not use it, it will still be a donation if it is over £500, but it will not be notional spending.2  

A person only makes use of something on behalf of a political party if that use has been directed, authorised or encouraged by the party, the responsible person, or one of their deputies.3

Valuing notional spending

If the supplier is a commercial provider, you should use the rates they charge other customers. If this information is not available, you should find out what similar providers charge for the same goods or services and use this as the commercial value. 

You should keep a record of how you reached your valuation and keep copies of any quotes you receive. 

The value you declare in your spending return should be an honest and reasonable assessment of the commercial value. 

Please see here for guidance on valuing a donation:

How do you work out the value of a donation?

Seconded staff

If an employer seconds a member of staff to your campaign, you must record their gross salary and any additional allowances as the notional value. 

You do not need to include the employer’s national insurance or pension contributions.4

Regional party list candidates and party spending

Spending on promoting regional party list candidates counts towards the party campaign spending limit, and must be reported by the party.1

Candidates standing on a regional party list may incur personal expenses. These expenses will only count towards the party spending limit if the party reimburses the candidate for the personal expenses.

Regional party list candidates must give a written statement to their agent of personal expenses paid within 21 days of the election result being declared,2  and submit a declaration to the Regional Returning Officer confirming their personal expenses within 35 days after the day on which the result is declared.3  

For personal expenses for constituency and dual candidates, please see the candidate guidance.

Dual candidacy

Candidates can stand as a regional party list candidate and also as a constituency candidate for the Scottish Parliamentary election. We call this “dual candidacy”.

Regional party list candidates standing on a party list do not have a separate candidate spending limit, unless they stand as a constituency candidate at the same time. A dual candidate will have a separate spending limit for any constituency campaigning within the constituency that they are contesting.

Constituency candidate spending

There is separate legislation governing spending promoting particular constituency candidates at a Scottish Parliamentary election.

Constituency candidates standing for your party will appoint agents, who are responsible for the candidate’s spending and must report it in a return after the election.

Identifying party and candidate spending

Sometimes you may need to decide whether campaign spending should count towards the party spending limit, or the spending limit of a candidate standing for your party in a particular constituency.  

Campaign spending does not count against both the party and candidate spending limits. It will usually fall into one category or the other. 

Political parties support their candidates in various ways. This may have to be reported in different ways, depending on what you do. Since often it must be reported by the candidate and agent, this is covered in more detail in the candidate guidance.

First, you should identify if your activity promotes a particular constituency candidate during the candidate regulated period. If it does, then the next question is how the spending must be reported. This depends on the candidate's or agent's link to the activity.

Activity promoting your party will be regarded as promoting a constituency candidate1 whenever the activity either:

• identifies the specific candidate 
• identifies the specific constituency in which the candidate is standing 
   

If your spending promotes the party but not any particular constituency candidate, then it must be reported as party spending.1

Spending which promotes a particular constituency candidate but does not appear in a candidate return must also be reported as party spending.

However, any spending which must appear in a candidate return is excluded from party spending.2

There are two ways that your activity could need to appear in a constituency candidate return:

• notional spending by the constituency candidate
• authorised spending by the party on behalf of the constituency candidate

Notional spending by the candidate

If you have provided or transferred something to the candidate, and it is then used by or on behalf of the candidate in the candidate regulated period, and if the value is over £50, then this will be notional spending by the candidate.3

In this case, the constituency candidate must report the spending. Since it must appear in the candidate return, the spending does not need to appear in the party return.

If the candidate receives it after they have become a candidate, this will also be a donation from the party to the candidate, and must also be reported as a donation in the return.4

Authorised spending

If you have not provided or transferred anything to the candidate, but if you have spent money promoting them after they are officially a candidate, this is what is sometimes called ‘local campaigning’.

You must get written authorisation from the candidate’s agent if you are going to spend more than £500 promoting a particular constituency candidate.5

If the agent authorises you to incur the spending, then you are also authorised to make the payments for that spending.6 If you do make the payments, then if it is received after they are officially a candidate and it is over £50 it will be a donation to the candidate.7   

The authorised spending must be reported by the agent in the candidate return.8  

Because it must appear in the candidate return, it does not need to appear in the party return. However, if you incurred over £500, then you must also complete a separate return and a declaration. You must submit these to the Returning Officer in the candidate’s constituency within 21 days of the result being declared.9

Unauthorised spending

If the agent has not authorised you to incur the spending, then it does not need to appear in the candidate return. In this case, you must include it in your party return as usual.10

It is an offence to spend more than £500 promoting any particular constituency candidate once they are officially a candidate without getting written authorisation from the agent.11

Why you may need to split spending

You may need to split your costs between activities and materials that count as campaign spending and those that don’t. 

Here are two common examples of where you need to split spending:

• if you use your office as a base for telephone canvassing, you will need to split the phone bill between canvassing calls, and calls made for non-campaign purposes
• if you use design work for campaigning before the regulated period begins, and continue to use it after it has begun, you will need to split the design costs between the two periods

Splitting between candidate and party spending

You may also need to split your costs between the party and a constituency candidate, if the spending has been authorised by the candidate’s agent.

For example, you might hire a car for a staff member who spends some of their time working on the party’s regional campaign, and the rest working for a constituency candidate in a particular constituency.

You should only divide the costs of an item between the party and candidate spending limits if you are sure that it is reasonable to do so.

For printed material such as leaflets, you can split the costs of physically distinct parts of the leaflet, such as separate pages or sides. You should only split the costs if there is no reference to a candidate or constituency in a particular part of the leaflet. You should not split the costs between the content in a part of the leaflet, for example by paragraph or sentence.

You should not divide the costs of an item if it is produced mainly to promote a constituency candidate, and uses the party’s name or refers to the party’s policies purely in support of that aim.

The honest assessment principle

In all cases you should make an honest assessment, based on the facts, of the proportion of spending that can fairly be attributed to your campaign.

Sometimes, it may be difficult to make an exact split. For example, your telephone bill may only provide a breakdown of the cost of calls over a certain value.

In these cases, you should consider the best way of making an honest assessment on the information you have. For example, you could compare the bill with one that does not cover a regulated period.

If you are still not sure, call or email us for advice.

When you submit your spending return you must declare that the return is complete and correct to the best of your knowledge and belief. This declaration covers any assessments you have made about splitting spending.

It is an offence to make a false declaration knowingly or recklessly.1
 

There are time limits by which the responsible person must receive and pay all invoices for your campaign spending.1

Receiving invoices from suppliers

You must obtain all your invoices for your campaign spending from suppliers within 30 days of the election. The last day for receiving invoices from your suppliers is Monday 8 June 2026.2

Invoices received after this deadline are called unpaid claims for the purposes of reporting. You must record unpaid claims in your spending return. 

You must not pay unpaid claims unless there is a court order enabling you to do so. This is called leave to pay and may be obtained by you or the supplier applying to the relevant court in advance of payment. 

Paying invoices from suppliers

You must pay all your invoices from suppliers within 60 days of the election. The last day for paying invoices is Monday 6 July 2026.3

If this date falls on a weekend, Bank Holiday or other public holiday it is moved to the next working day.

Invoices received in time but remaining unpaid after this deadline are called disputed claims.4 You must record disputed claims in your spending return.

You must not pay disputed claims unless there is a court judgment or order enabling you to do so. This is called leave to pay and may be obtained by you applying to the relevant court in advance of payment. Suppliers may also apply to the relevant court to obtain a court judgement or order for payment.  

Enforcement

We may issue a civil sanction for a breach of these rules. 

However, we will not usually consider taking enforcement action to be proportionate where the delay or amounts are small.

Final decisions on prosecution for receiving and paying late invoices are made by the Crown Office/Procurator Fiscal.

You must report your campaign spending to us after the election.1

You must record all your campaign spending. You will need to send us this information in your spending return after the election. 

All costs must include VAT, even if VAT does not appear on the invoice, or you can recover VAT payments.

What you need to record

For each item of spending, you must record the following information to put into your spending return:

• what the spending was for – for example, leaflets or advertising
• the name and address of the supplier
• for a payment made, the amount
• for notional spending, the value2  
• the date that you spent the money
• any invoices not received by the deadline (unpaid claims)3
• any payments not made by the deadline (disputed claims)4

You must also include invoices or receipts for any payments over £200.5

Invoices are not required for notional spending, since it is not a payment, but the value of something that has been provided. It is good practice to include evidence of how you calculated the value.

The return must be accompanied by a declaration from the responsible person to say that the return is complete and correct.6

It is a criminal offence to make a false declaration knowingly or recklessly.

You can report your campaign spending via PEF Online. 

We also provide a template form for you to use to help you keep records and complete your return. We recommend you use either PEF Online or our template to ensure you are providing the details required by law.

You can download the form below and submit the completed form to us by email at [email protected] or you can post it to us.

If you are posting your return, we recommend that you post it in time to arrive no later than the last working day before the deadline.

Donations and loans

Donations and loans are reported by parties on a quarterly basis when they exceed a certain threshold or are impermissible.

There are no additional requirements on parties for reporting donations and loans at the Scottish Parliamentary election.

Donations given to help with the campaigns of party list candidates will count as donations to the party.

Your party’s registered treasurer is responsible for making sure that the party follows the law on donations and loans. You should ensure that you have systems in place for party list candidates and agents to provide the treasurer with all the necessary information about donations and loans they receive.

Please see our guidance on party donations and loans for more information.

The date by which you must report to us depends on how much you spent on your campaign. The deadlines are shown below.1

You may be liable for a penalty if you don’t submit your return on time.

If your campaign expenditure is over £250k you must include an independent auditor’s report.2

For more information see this document: