Guidance for Candidates and Agents at Senedd elections

There are rules to make sure that spending can be controlled and accurately recorded and reported.

It is your responsibility to fully and accurately report candidate spending. You should ensure you understand the law and that all spending is properly authorised, recorded and reported.

Who can incur candidate spending?

During the regulated period, only the following people are allowed to incur election spending for individual candidates:

• the agent
• the candidate, and
• anyone authorised by the candidate or agent1

By ‘incur’ we mean making a legal commitment to spend the money. 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. However, there are separate controls around who can legally commit to owe money for candidate spending and who can pay for election spending under the law.

If you authorise someone to incur candidate spending, you must do so in writing and be clear how much they can spend and on what.2

Who can pay for candidate spending?

Controls on who can make payments apply once you are officially a candidate. Individual candidates can appoint an election agent, or act as their own election agent. Appointing an election agent affects who can make payments.

Before you appoint an agent

The candidate can only pay for items (except for personal expenses) that have been incurred, and for which payment is due, before an agent is appointed.3 The candidate can only pay up to a total of £900 on personal expenses for travel and accommodation. Any additional personal expenses must be paid by the agent.4

After you appoint an agent

Once you appoint an agent, payments for most candidate spending must be made by or through the agent.5 In addition to personal expenses, there are three exceptions:

• the agent can give written authorisation for someone to pay for minor expenses such as stationery or postage. The authorisation must include the amount of the payment.6
• people can spend up to £1,000 on campaigning for or against one or more individual candidates in a constituency. The agent can give written authorisation for someone to incur and pay for spending on behalf of the candidate so that it does not count towards this £1,000 limit (see Authorising others to incur spending).7
• the candidate can make payments for invoices they have obtained a court order to pay, as the legal deadline for making the payment has passed

If any payments are made by anyone other than the candidate, agent or sub-agent – for example by a person authorised in writing to incur spending (and it is not reimbursed by the agent) then this will be a donation to the candidate if it is over £500.8 See Donations for individual candidates for more on donations.

You should make sure that your volunteers and campaigners are aware of the law and know who can and cannot incur or pay costs.

The spending controls are summarised in the following table: