Consultation on the Code of Practice for non-party campaigners at Senedd elections

Summary

The Elections Act 2022 introduced new requirements for registration and spending by non-party campaigners. The Act also created a duty on the Electoral Commission to produce a Code of Practice on the laws relating to non-party campaigner spending, including what qualifies as expenses, reporting controlled expenditure and donations, and joint campaigning. The Code applied to elections to the UK Parliament and to the Northern Ireland Assembly.

As a result, the Welsh Government has introduced new legislation which includes a duty on the Electoral Commission to produce a similar Code of Practice on the laws relating to non-party campaigners for Senedd elections.

Where possible, we have attempted to keep the Code for Senedd elections and the corresponding UK Code as similar as possible, to ensure a level of consistency across elections, and to avoid confusion for those who must follow the law. There will however be some differences in the Senedd Code.

We will also be drafting and publishing non-statutory guidance for campaigners that will sit alongside the Code.

Read the Code

Read our Code of Practice for non-party campaigners at Senedd elections

How to respond

The consultation is open from Wednesday 11 June 2025

You can respond by:

filling in our online form
emailing your views to [email protected] or
writing to us at:

The Electoral Commission
James William House
9 Museum Place
Cardiff
CF10 3BD

The consultation will close on Sunday 27th July 2025.

Purpose test

Spending on campaign activities by non-party campaigners is only regulated if it can reasonably be regarded as intended to promote or procure the electoral success of:

a) one or more political parties
b) political parties or candidates who support or do not support particular policies
c) or another particular category of candidates

by influencing voters at an upcoming election to vote in a particular way. This is commonly known as the ‘purpose test’.

Is the draft Code helpful in explaining what is meant by the ‘purpose test’?

Does the draft Code effectively explain what factors will help determine whether an activity can be ‘reasonably regarded’ as regulated expenditure?

Is the information included on how the purpose test applies for a retrospective regulated period clear?

Is there any other information we can include that would support your understanding?

Notification and reporting thresholds

Notification threshold

Non-party campaigners intending to spend more than £10,000 on regulated campaign activity in the period before a Senedd election must notify the Commission. This is referred to in this Code and in legislation as the ‘notification threshold’.

Once a non-party campaigner appears on the register of notifications, following submission of a notification, the Commission will refer to them as a ‘registered non-party campaigner’.

In Commission’s non-statutory guidance or in correspondence with the Commission, you may see this referred to as the ’registration threshold’.

A non-party campaigner that is permitted to spend more than £700 on regulated campaign activity may spend up to £10,000 across the UK without notifying the Commission.

Reporting threshold

Registered non-party campaigners who spend more than £10,000 in Wales must record and report their spending and donations. This is known as the ‘reporting threshold’.

Does the draft Code effectively explain what is meant by the ‘notification threshold’?

Does the draft Code effectively explain what is meant by the ‘reporting threshold’?

Does the draft Code make it clear that the notification threshold is the term used in this Code and the legislation, however our non-statutory guidance may refer to this as the ‘registration threshold’?

Is there any other information we can include that would support your understanding?

Joint campaigning

Non-party campaigners may decide to work together on a campaign. This is called ‘joint campaigning’. The rules on joint campaigning apply to registered and un-registered non-party campaigners.

A non-party campaigner takes part in joint campaigning where they:

a) enter into a plan or other arrangement with one or more other non-party campaigners
b) all non-party campaigners involved intend to incur expenditure in pursuance of that plan or arrangement
c) one or more of the non-party campaigners involved incurs expenditure in pursuance of the plan or arrangement and
d) that plan or arrangement can reasonably be regarded as intending to achieve a common purpose.

All of the spending on the joint campaign counts towards the spending limit of each of the non-party campaigners involved in the joint campaign.

Is the draft Code helpful in explaining what is meant by ‘joint campaigning’?

Does the draft Code support you to understand what factors you should take into account when considering whether activity is joint campaigning?

Are the examples we have included clear and are there any other types of examples that would support your understanding?

General

Ahead of the UK Parliamentary general election in 2024, we integrated the content of the Code into our non-statutory guidance. Would this be helpful to repeat for the Senedd election guidance, or would you prefer to keep the Code and the non-statutory guidance separate?