Guidance for Candidates and Agents at Police and Crime Commissioner elections

In some instances, people spend money to promote a candidate without providing or transferring something for the candidate’s use or benefit during the campaign. Likewise, people may spend money to criticise a candidate or encourage voters not to support them.

Organisations or individuals, who are not standing as candidates at the elections, who campaign for or against a candidate are known as ‘local non-party campaigners’.

Local non-party campaigners can spend up to a ‘permitted sum’ in each police area on campaigning for or against a candidate.1  Each police area has its own spending limit. It applies once the candidate is officially a candidate (see When do you officially become a candidate?).

These limits are:2

A local non-party campaigner cannot spend more than this permitted sum without the agent’s written authorisation to incur the additional spending, which will count towards the candidate’s spending limit.3

If a local non-party campaigner incurs spending over the permitted sum, then this additional spending must be reported by them to the Police Area Returning Officer (PARO) within 21 days of the result being declared.4  There is a separate return and declaration that must be completed by the local non-party campaigner to report authorised expenses.

The authorised expenses must also be included in the candidate’s spending return.5  Money that is incurred by campaigners in local campaigns that has been authorised by the agent is candidate spending and counts towards the spending limit.6

The authorised expenses may also be paid by the person authorised to incur them.7  If they do make the payments, and the spending is over £50, then this will be a donation to the candidate and must be reported in the spending return.8

See Making payments for candidate spending and Candidate donations for more information.

Non-party campaigners planning a local campaign should read our guidance for local non-party campaigners. 

Local campaigning by parties

Parties must also be aware that any spending by the party on local campaigning for one of their candidates that is not authorised by the agent, will count as party spending.9  At elections covered by party regulated period, this spending must be included in the party's spending return.10

By law there must be a UK Parliamentary general election by 28 January 2025. This means that it is likely that campaigning at the elections in May 2024 will be covered by a party regulated period.

In contrast, any authorised expenses will only need to appear in the local campaigning forms and candidate spending return as above.