Consultation on draft statutory guidance: Digital imprints for non-party campaigners in Scotland

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.

Non-party campaigners at Scottish Parliamentary elections and council elections already are covered by UK-wide digital imprint requirements in the Elections Act 2022, and by print imprint requirements in the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000, the Representation of the People Act 1983, and the Scottish Parliamentary Elections Order 2015.

The Scottish Elections (Representation and Reform) Act 2025 [SERRA 25] replaces the existing Scottish digital imprints regime, but retains requirements for unregistered non-party campaigners, who are not specifically covered by the UK imprints regime. This preserves the extra transparency requirements that were already in place for devolved Scottish elections.

The Act introduces a new duty on the Commission to prepare statutory guidance explaining this aspect of the digital imprints regime and how the Commission will exercise their enforcement functions under it. The guidance, once prepared, will be presented to the Scottish Ministers. The Ministers may then modify the guidance, before laying it for parliamentary approval.

Campaigners will need to understand and comply with the new digital imprint laws in Scotland, regardless of their size or experience. Your views will help us make the guidance we present to the Minister as clear and helpful as possible.

Once the statutory guidance comes into force, which we expect to be in November 2025, the Commission must have regard to the guidance as we 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 27 March 2025.

You can respond by:

The Electoral Commission

City Chambers

High Street

Edinburgh

EH1 1YJ

Throughout the consultation period, we will continue to engage with the 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.

The consultation deadline has been extended, and will now close on 13 June.

Questionnaire

Our guidance approach

The Commission produces two types of guidance: statutory and non-statutory.

Statutory guidance provides a statutory defence to campaigners who can show that they acted in accordance with it.

When the Commission drafts statutory guidance, we present it to the relevant government Ministers. They may then amend it, and then may lay it in Parliament. If it sits in Parliament for 40 days, it becomes a type of secondary legislation.

By contrast, the Commission’s non-statutory guidance is independent and cannot be amended by the government. It does not provide a statutory defence, but it does explain how to comply with the law.

This statutory guidance can legally only cover the new requirements for unregistered non-party campaigners at Scottish devolved elections, not the existing UK requirements which also apply to them. This means that Scottish campaigners reading the statutory guidance would also have to read the separate existing statutory guidance on digital imprints in order to understand the full digital imprints requirements, as well as non-statutory guidance on print imprints.

To avoid this, we have prepared a non-statutory guidance document, which we hope will be more practical for campaigners. This single document covers all imprint requirements that apply to non-party campaigners in Scottish devolved elections, including those set out in the statutory guidance.

The non-statutory document covers: 

  • the new requirements in the SERRA 25
  • the UK digital imprints requirements as they apply to non-party campaigners in devolved Scottish elections
  • the existing print imprint requirements

Where possible, we have kept the wording of the Scottish guidance consistent with the wording in the UK statutory guidance.

Do you agree with our approach of creating a non-statutory guidance document to cover all imprint requirements for non-party campaigners in Scotland?
Do you agree with our approach of keeping the wording in the Scottish statutory guidance consistent with the UK statutory guidance where possible?

What material requires an imprint

In addition to the digital imprint requirements in UK law, unregistered non-party campaigners in Scottish Parliamentary elections and council elections in Scotland must include an imprint on organic digital material if it is election material.
Does the statutory guidance support you to know what extra material requires an imprint in Scottish elections, on top of what is required by UK law?
Does the non-statutory guidance support you to know what material requires an imprint overall?

Location of the imprint

The imprint must be included as a part of the material, unless it is not reasonably practicable to do so. If it is not reasonably practicable, then the imprint must be included somewhere directly accessible from the material.

All this wording is reproduced from the UK statutory guidance. 

Does the guidance explain clearly where the imprint must appear?
Is it clear what is considered ‘a part of the material’?
Does the guidance support you to understand when it is ‘reasonably practicable’ to include the imprint as a part of the material?
Does the guidance give enough information on what is considered ‘directly accessible’ from the material?
Are there any other examples we can include that would support your understanding?

Republishing material

When material is republished on social media, sometimes it does not need a new imprint, if the original imprint can still be used. This applies when someone republishes material that has already been published with a correct imprint and the sharer does not alter the material.

In the non-statutory guidance we include a large number of examples of sharing material. This is so that the examples can cover UK law as well as Scottish law.

Is the guidance clear at explaining what types of republishing will require a new imprint?
Are there any other types of examples we can include in the non-statutory guidance that would support your understanding?

Regulation and enforcement of the regime

The guidance sets out our approach to enforcement of the regime by linking to our enforcement policy. The Electoral Commission  must have regard to the guidance when carrying out their duties under the Act. For campaigners, showing that they have complied with the guidance will be a statutory defence to any offence under the new laws.
Do you agree with our approach to reference our wider enforcement policy?
Is the information on the obtaining information power in the statutory guidance helpful?
Is the information in the non-statutory guidance about our approach to paid adverts and directly accessible imprints helpful?

General questions

Are there any other digital platforms or types of digital material that are not included in examples that you think should be?
Is there anything else you would like to tell us to help us draft this guidance?
Are you replying to this consultation as/on behalf of a:

Your contact details (optional):

Please provide your name and email address if you are happy to do so. We may use these contact details to follow up with you regarding your consultation response.

Background

Who we are

The Electoral Commission is the independent body which oversees elections and regulates political finance in the UK. We work to promote public confidence in the democratic process and ensure its integrity.

We support candidates, parties and campaigners by providing comprehensive guidance and resources to help them understand what they should be doing to comply with the law, and that enables them to focus their efforts on engaging with voters.

You can find out more about our role and responsibilities on our website.

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.

The UK Elections Act 2022 introduced provisions to require imprints on some kinds of digital material, including on organic election material at any election in the UK. We produced statutory guidance on these provisions.

The Scottish Elections (Representation and Reform) Act 2025

The Scottish Elections (Representation and Reform) Act 2025 adds in new provisions for devolved Scottish elections on top on the requirements in the Elections Act 2022. These provisions maintain the extra transparency that was already required in Scotland by the 2020 legislation.

Section 52 of the Act contains a specific duty on the Commission to produce statutory guidance on the new Scottish digital imprint requirements that we expect to come into force in October 2025.

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