Political party donations and loans in Northern Ireland

Checks on donations

Donations can only be accepted from certain sources, which are mainly UK-based. Please see Who can you accept donations and loans from? for details on which sources are permissible.

Before your party accepts any donation of more than £500, you must take all reasonable steps to: 

• make sure you know the true identity of the donor
• check that the donation is from a permissible source

How long do you have to check permissibility?

When you receive a donation, you have 30 days to decide if you can accept it. 

You must satisfy yourselves that the source is permissible each time a donation is made, even if you have made permissibility checks for past donations from the same source.

You should keep a record of all your permissibility checks to show that you have followed the rules.

If the donation isn’t from a permissible donor, or for any reason you can’t be sure of the true identity of the source, please read What do you do if you receive a donation from an impermissible or unidentifiable source? for further guidance on the actions you must take.