We aim to approve or refuse your application within seven weeks from the point we have all the information needed to assess your application.
The law requires that we are satisfied in our decision making and have fully considered all relevant statutory requirements. This process can take some time, to ensure we reach a fair conclusion.
We assess applications in order of the date they are ready for assessment. We cannot prioritise or expedite your application. This is to ensure that we treat applications equally.
Complex applications
For complex applications, the Registration team may need to work with other teams in the Commission to properly consider your application. This means it may take longer for us to provide a decision.
We will let you know whether your application is complex as soon as possible. We aim to provide a decision on complex applications within nine weeks of the application being ready for assessment.
We determine whether an application is complex on a case-by-case basis, by reviewing the application documents and any other relevant context. If your application is complex, this does not affect the likelihood of your application being successful.
Submitting applications ahead of scheduled elections
We advise that you submit applications well ahead of any elections that you intend to contest. This will allow sufficient time for assessment, and to address any issues.
Before scheduled elections, we will set and publish a date that we advise for you to submit registration applications ahead of. This date will be published on our ‘Registering and maintaining a party’ webpage.
If your application is submitted after that date, we cannot guarantee that we will be able to take a decision on your application in time for your party to be registered for those elections. This is because there are statutory deadlines for changes to the register. This includes instances where your initial application comes before the date but you submit a further application after the date.