Non-party campaigners: UK Parliamentary general elections

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Activities that will not be regulated

In addition to the below, PPERA provides that reasonable expenses attributable to the protection of persons or property is not a regulated activity and will not count towards any spending limit.1 This includes, for example, hiring security, using of a PO Box to avoid publicising a home or office address on imprints, or purchasing antivirus software for protecting campaign computers.

This exemption was introduced after the approval of the Code and does not form part of the Code of Practice. 

PPERA specifically excludes the following expenses from the reporting requirements:

  • expenses incurred in respect of the publication of any matter relating to an election, other than an advertisement:
    • in a newspaper or periodical 
    • as a broadcast made by the British Broadcasting Corporation or by Sianel Pedwar Cymru or
    • as a programme included in any service licensed under Part 1 or 3 of the Broadcasting Act 1990 or Part 1 or 2 of the Broadcasting Act 1996 
  • expenses incurred in respect of, or in consequence of, the translation of anything from English into Welsh or from Welsh into English
  • reasonable personal expenses incurred by an individual in travelling or in providing for the individual's accommodation or other personal needs
  • reasonable expenses that are reasonably attributable to an individual's disability
  • expenses incurred in respect of the provision of an individual's own services provided voluntarily in the individual's own time and free of charge2

Translating material into or from Welsh

Any additional costs you incur if material you are publishing is translated from Welsh to English and vice versa do not count towards your spending limit. You must make an honest assessment of the basic costs if only one language was being used and should use this to determine the additional costs.

Example

You produce a bilingual leaflet which contains Welsh and English versions of the same text and is therefore a few pages longer than if the leaflet was only produced in one language. 

The translator’s fee and the cost of designing, printing and posting the additional pages do not count towards your spending limit. Any other language translation costs will count towards your spending limits.

Personal expenses

Reasonable expenses incurred by an individual on travelling, accommodation or other personal needs in relation to regulated campaign activities will not be regulated.

Example

If an individual travels to another city for the weekend to join your local campaign and pays these costs themselves, these costs will not count towards your spending limit.

However, if you reimburse an individual for their personal expenses, these expenses will be regulated campaign spending and must be reported.

Expenses incurred in relation to an individual’s disability

Any additional support costs for disabled people who are working on any regulated activities, or for disabled people to access or take part in any regulated activities that you are organising, also do not count towards your spending limit.

Example

Producing a supply of Braille campaign leaflets to distribute to blind members of the public, or hiring adapted equipment so that disabled members of the public could take part in a public event.

Volunteer time

You do not need to include the time volunteers spend on regulated campaign activity as regulated expenses. However, spending money on any resources that you provide for your volunteers to carry out regulated campaign activities will be covered. For example, if a minibus is hired to transport volunteers to carry out canvassing, the cost of the hire will count towards your spending limit.

Sometimes you may not be sure if someone is a volunteer or if their time should be treated as notional spending. For example, they may offer similar services professionally to the ones they are performing for you.

They are likely to be a volunteer if, for example, the time they spend on your campaign is not paid for by their employer (unless it is their usual annual leave). If they use specialist equipment or materials, you should consider whether their use is notional spending.

Party and candidate expenses

Spending that must be reported by a registered political party or candidate as election expenses should be reported only by that organisation or individual. It does not count towards your spending limit and must not be included in your spending return.3

Last updated: 20 June 2024