Consultation on draft statutory guidance: digital imprints

We ran a consultation on draft statutory guidance on digital imprints from October to December 2022.

The digital imprint regime is now in force (from November 2023), and you can view our statutory guidance.

Summary

‘Imprints’ are added to certain political or election-related material to show who is responsible for the material. This helps to deliver transparency for voters about who is spending money to influence them.

The Elections Act 2022 includes provisions requiring imprints on digital campaign material.

The Act introduces a new duty on the Commission to prepare statutory guidance explaining the digital imprints regime and how the Commission and the police will exercise their enforcement functions under it. The guidance, once prepared, will be presented to the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities. The Minister may then modify the guidance, before laying it for parliamentary approval.

Parties and campaigners will need to understand and comply with the new digital imprint laws across the UK, regardless of their size or experience. Your views will help us make the guidance we present to the Secretary of State as clear and helpful as possible.

Once the statutory guidance comes into force in November 2023, the Commission and the police must have regard to the guidance as they enforce the regime. For campaigners, showing that they have complied with the guidance will be a statutory defence to any offence under the new laws.

How to respond

The consultation is open from 31 October 2022 until 20 December 2022.

You can respond by:

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

Regulatory Support Team
The Electoral Commission
3 Bunhill Row
London EC1Y 8YZ

Throughout the consultation period, we will continue to engage with the electoral and campaigning community. We are happy to meet with any groups or interested individuals on request.

If you have any questions, please do get in touch on 0207 271 0527.

How we developed the draft guidance

We talked to a range of political parties and non-party campaigners from across the UK to inform the draft guidance. 

We asked them about:

  • their understanding of the provisions 
  • how they use digital material in their political campaigning 
  • what digital platforms they use to reach voters  
  • how they see digital campaigning evolving in the future

View the draft guidance.

Background

Existing imprint legislation

There are well-established laws requiring imprints on printed material relating to elections, referendums and recall petitions in the UK. 

In 2020 the Scottish government introduced imprint requirements on digital election material used at Scottish Parliamentary elections and council elections in Scotland. 

For more information on these laws, please see our existing guidance. 

Elections Act 2022 

The UK Elections Act 2022 includes provisions to require imprints on some kinds of digital material. The new digital imprints laws will apply: 

  • across the UK
  • to all reserved elections

Section 54 of the Elections Act 2022 contains a specific duty on the Commission to produce statutory guidance on the new digital imprint regime that comes into force in November 2023. 

Statutory guidance, unlike most of the Commission’s guidance, must be approved by the relevant Minister, and Parliament.