Sometimes, you may need to split your costs between activities that count as candidate spending and those that don’t.
For example, between:
items used both before and during the regulated period
your campaign spending and other activities such as an office that you share with your local party
In all cases you should make an honest assessment, based on the facts, of the proportion of expenditure that can fairly be attributed to your candidate spending.
For example, if you are sharing a party office, the 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.
It is your responsibility to report your candidate spending fully and accurately. You should ensure you understand the rules and that all spending is properly authorised, recorded, and reported.
After the election, you will have to sign a declaration to declare that it is complete and correct to the best of your knowledge and belief.1
It is an offence to knowingly make a false declaration.2
If you are still not sure, call or email us for advice.
Splitting spending for dual candidates
Candidates standing for election in a constituency and a region will need to split their spending based on whether it promotes their regional or constituency campaign.
Independent candidates standing for election in both a constituency and a region must make an honest assessment of whether items used to promote their candidacy counts towards their regional or constituency campaign and must be reported in the correct spending return after the election.
Party candidates standing for election in both a constituency and a region will need to make an honest assessment of whether the items used promotes them as a constituency candidate, or promotes the party list in the region. Items used in the constituency campaign must be reported by the candidate after the election, and items used to promote the candidate or party in the region must be reported by the party. See next section for more details.