Understanding if your campaign activity is regulated

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Campaigners are an important part of our democracy and carrying out regulated campaigning is a valid choice for civil society organisations, charities and campaigners to make. However, it is important that these activities are transparent to voters, so they know who is spending money to influence their vote.

If you're making plans to campaign on issues ahead of an election, you might need to register with us as a non-party campaigner. Not all election-related activity in the run up to an election is regulated. If you’re running voter registration and voter information events and activities, they’re unlikely to be regulated.

This page is a summary of our guidance for non-party campaigners at a UK Parliament general election. It covers who needs to register as a non-party campaigner and some of the most asked questions we receive about campaigning.

It aims to support organisations in the democratic engagement sector to understand if their activities are regulated.

Read our guidance for non-party campaigners at a UK Parliament general election

What is a non-party campaigner?

Non-party campaigners are people and organisations who campaign on issues around elections but aren’t registered parties or candidates. This includes campaigning for or against a political party, a candidate, or a group of candidates.

Non-party campaigners are regulated when their activity can reasonably be considered as trying to influence voters to vote a particular way. There are laws that they must follow on campaign spending, donations, and reporting. If your election activity could not be reasonably regarded to influence voters to vote a certain way, then it is unlikely to be regulated.

Non-party campaigners are required by law to register with us if they spend £10,000 on regulated campaign activity.

You can find out more in our non-party campaigner guidance.

As part of the Elections Act, there have been changes to the regulation of non-party campaigners including:

  • Any non-party campaigner intending to spend more than £10,000 on regulated campaign activities in the period before a UK Parliamentary general election must register with the Electoral Commission.
  • Campaigners must now include details on some digital campaign material.
  • Only eligible people or organisations can spend more than £700 on regulated campaigning at UK general elections. For example, people who are neither registered UK voters nor resident in the UK, or companies that are not registered in the UK cannot spend more than this limit.
  • Non-party campaigners are not eligible to register as a political party, and vice versa.

What is regulated campaign activity?

The law sets out a list of campaign activities which can be regulated. These include publishing campaign material, public rallies and press conferences.

There are separate laws about campaigning for or against a particular candidate in a constituency or electoral area. This is called “local campaigning”. Find out more about local campaigning in our guidance.

Understanding if your campaign activity is regulated

Whether campaign activity is regulated is based on if it can reasonably be considered as trying to influence voters to vote a particular way. This is called the ‘purpose test’.

If you are running an event or campaign about voter registration or to help people understand how to use their vote, this is unlikely to be regulated campaign activity.

Find out more about voter registration activities.

If you are creating organic social media posts and the content of the posts mean they are classed as regulated campaign activity, anything you spend to create and publish the posts will be regulated.

A hustings may be classed as regulated activity. This is dependent on whether you invite all candidates or parties standing in your area, or if the hustings could be reasonably regarded to influence voters to vote a certain way.

There may be an impartial reason to not invite all candidates or parties to your hustings. For example, due to fears relating to security, recent election results in your area, or limited resources like space.

If your hustings could not be reasonably regarded to influence voters, for example if all candidates or parties are invited, it is called a non-selective hustings. This is not regulated.

If you choose to invite specific candidates or parties to your hustings, or if the event could be reasonably regarded to influence voters to vote a certain way, this is called a selective hustings. Your spending on this event may be regulated.

Read our guidance about holding a hustings.

It is unlikely that an awareness event will be regulated, but you can use the tool above to check if this is the case.

Any events that are purely focused on raising awareness of an issue or to encourage people to register to vote cannot be reasonably regarded as intended to influence people to vote a particular way. This means they would not be regulated.

Campaign material and imprints

Imprints must be included on some campaign and election material so voters know who is responsible for the material and who they’re promoting it for.

If you register as a non-party campaigner, you might need to include an imprint on some of the campaign and election material you produce.

Find out more about imprints for non-party campaigners.

Do I need to register as a non-party campaigner?

You need to register with us as a non-party campaigner if you are going to spend more than £10,000 in the regulated period before a UK Parliamentary general election. Only regulated campaign activities count towards the £10,000 threshold.

The regulated period is the 365 days leading up to, and including, polling day. 

It is an offence to spend more than £10,000 on regulated campaigning without registering with us. You can register as an individual or as an organisation.

If you do not spend any money, for example, because all your activity is carried out by volunteers, and no one else spends on your behalf, you do not need to register.

Understanding if different types of organisations need to register as a non-party campaigner

You don’t need to register based on these grants. However, the organisations holding awareness events may need to register if these events are regulated campaigning.

If you give an organisation who is registered as a non-party campaigner a grant of over £7,500 for regulated campaign activities, then they may need to report that as a donation. They will also need to check that they can accept a donation from you, as only certain people or types of organisations can make donations. Find out more in our guidance on donations.

If the campaign activity of one member of the coalition is regulated, they may need to register as a non-party campaigner. However, the other members of the coalition will not need to register as a non-party campaigner based on this.

The only exception is if the members of the coalition have each agreed to spend on regulated activity - this is called joint campaigning. This would only apply to spending on the joint campaign and does not include any spending on activity by individual organisations outside the joint campaign. Find out more about joint campaigning in our guidance.

If you hold awareness events for young people to discuss their rights, it is unlikely to be a regulated campaign activity. Events targeted at under 18s only are not regulated, as under 18s are not voters.

If your organisation asks people to consider a certain issue when deciding who to vote for (for example, climate change), this could be regulated campaign activity even if you’re not encouraging votes for a specific party or candidate.

This is because your activity may reasonably be regarded as intended to influence voters to vote for candidates who support particular policies. You will need to apply the purpose test to check if your campaign activity is regulated.

If you are also already running a campaign before an election and the campaign does not change during the run up to an election, it is unlikely that this will be regulated campaign activity.

After registering as a non-party campaigner

Donations and spending

Non-party campaigners can only accept donations over £500 from certain organisations or people, known as permissible sources.

You will need to report your spending and donations if you spend over:

  • £20,000 on regulated campaign activity in England
  • £10,000 on regulated campaign activity in Scotland, Wales, or Northern Ireland

You can find out more about reporting requirements in our guidance.

You must submit reports of your donations in the lead up to an election. In addition, you will be required to report spending and donations to us after the election.

You can let us know that you do not intend to spend more than these reporting thresholds when you register.

You can find an overview of the requirements in our guidance.

Our role

We support campaigners to understand and comply with political finance law, and we also monitor and enforce the law. There are other organisation who regulate other areas of the law which apply to charities and civil society organisations – for example, the Charity Commission for England and Wales, the Charity Commission for Northern Ireland and OSCR.

We routinely monitor campaign activity in the run-up to an election campaign. This helps us identify organisations whose activities are likely to be regulated, so we can contact them and support them to understand the law. It also allows us to identify potential breaches of the law.

Our approach to regulation aims to be proportionate, effective and fair. We will offer advice and guidance to campaigners if we believe that this is the most effective way of ensuring they comply with the law in future. For more serious cases, for most political finance offences involving campaigners, we have civil sanctions. Some offences are dealt with by the police.

You can find out more about our approach to enforcement on our website.

Support available for non-party campaigners

We provide a range of support to campaigners to help them understand the law. This includes:

  • guidance for non-party campaigners
  • webinars on specific aspects of the law
  • regular bulletins with key information and upcoming dates
  • tailored advice to non-party campaigners

To contact our advice service:

You can also contact our partnerships team at [email protected].

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