Non-party campaigners: Scottish Parliamentary elections

If you are registered as a non-party campaigner, you must report your donations and spending to us after the election if you spent more than £10,000 on regulated campaign activities during the regulated period.1

The deadline for submitting your spending and donations return is Friday 7 August 2026.

We will provide a template form for you to use to help you keep records and complete your return. We recommend you use our template to ensure you are providing the details required by law.

You can download the form below and submit the completed form to us by email at [email protected] or you can post it to us.

Alternatively, you can submit your return on PEF Online. If you are submitting your spending and donations on PEF Online, please note that the spending return and donations report are separate.

If you are posting your return, we recommend that you post it in time to arrive no later than the last working day before the deadline.

Spending

In your return you must include:

• details of any spending incurred by you accompanied by invoices or receipts for any payment over £2002
• details of any notional spending (no invoices or receipts are required)
• details of any invoices not received by the deadline or items not paid by the deadline3
• details of any joint campaigning, where required

For each item of spending, you must report:

• what the spending was for, for example, leaflets or advertising
• the name and address of the supplier
• the amount or value of spending incurred
• the date the spending was incurred
• the date the claim for payment was made (if applicable)
• the date the payment was made (if applicable)

Donations

In your return you must report donations you received after you registered as a non-party campaigner. You only need to include donations of a certain value that you received towards your spending on regulated campaign activities. This includes donations towards your regulated campaign spending that you received before the start of the regulated period, if you were already registered.

We publish details of these donations on our public register. These details do not include the addresses of individuals who donate.

Permissible donations

You must report donations whenever the total amount accepted from the donor towards meeting your spending on regulated campaign activity exceeds £7,500. This may be a single donation of more than £7,500, or multiple donations (over £500) which add up to more than £7,500.4  You must only include donations over £500 when adding together multiple donations from the same donor.

You must also report the total value of any other donations you accepted between £500 and £7,500 received for the purpose of meeting spending on regulated campaign activity.5  These are donations that are not reportable individually as the total does not exceed £7,500. You do not need to provide any more information about these donations.

Impermissible donations

You must report all donations over £500 from impermissible or unidentifiable donors received for the purpose of meeting spending on regulated campaign activity.6  You do not need to add together impermissible donations.

What details must you report?

For donations you have accepted that are (or add up to) over £7,500, you must report:

• the required details for the type of donor7  (please see Who can you accept donations from? for guidance on the details you must record for each donor type)
• the amount of the donation, if monetary, or the nature and value of the donation if non-monetary8
• the date you received the donation
• the date you accepted the donation9

For donations from impermissible or unidentifiable donors you must report:

• the name of the donor, if known, or the manner in which the donation was made10  
• the amount of the donation, if monetary, or the nature and value of the donation if non-monetary11
• the date you received the donation12
• the date you returned the donation13
• the action you took to return the donation (for example, the person or institution you returned it to)14

Declaration

Alongside the return, the responsible person must declare that:

• the return is complete and correct15
• all payments were paid by them, or by a person they authorised16
• all accepted donations were received from permissible donors 17
• no other reportable donations were accepted by the non-party campaigner18

It is an offence for the responsible person to make a false declaration knowingly or recklessly.19