Scottish Parliamentary election 2026: Party spending

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Splitting spending

Why you may need to split spending

You may need to split your costs between activities and materials that count as campaign spending and those that don’t. 

Here are two common examples of where you need to split spending:

  • if you use your office as a base for telephone canvassing, you will need to split the phone bill between canvassing calls, and calls made for non-campaign purposes
  • if you use design work for campaigning before the regulated period begins, and continue to use it after it has begun, you will need to split the design costs between the two periods

For example, you commission design work for a campaign logo for your party that you use on your website, other social media and on all your campaign material for a month before the regulated period starts and during the 4 month regulated period.

You should split the cost of the design equally across the entire time that you use it in this way.

The design work cost £15,000, and you used it over a 5 month period, so the cost per month is £15,000 ÷ 5 = £3,000 a month. 

The regulated period covered the final 4 months, so the cost of spending during the regulated period is:

4 x £3,000 = £12,000 

£12,000 must be recorded as party campaign spending
 

Splitting between candidate and party spending

You may also need to split your costs between the party and a constituency candidate, if the spending has been authorised by the candidate’s agent.

For example, you might hire a car for a staff member who spends some of their time working on the party’s regional campaign, and the rest working for a constituency candidate in a particular constituency.

You should only divide the costs of an item between the party and candidate spending limits if you are sure that it is reasonable to do so.

For printed material such as leaflets, you can split the costs of physically distinct parts of the leaflet, such as separate pages or sides. You should only split the costs if there is no reference to a candidate or constituency in a particular part of the leaflet. You should not split the costs between the content in a part of the leaflet, for example by paragraph or sentence.

You should not divide the costs of an item if it is produced mainly to promote a constituency candidate, and uses the party’s name or refers to the party’s policies purely in support of that aim.

Example A

A leaflet has four pages. Three are produced locally and promote the constituency candidate. The content on the fourth page is created by the national party and focuses on the party’s national policies only, with no mention of the candidate or constituency.

Since the page of the leaflet promoting the party is physically distinct, the party counts 25% of the leaflet costs to the party limit. The remaining costs will count towards the candidate’s spending limit, if it is made use of by or on behalf of the candidate (see notional spending), or if it has been authorised by the candidate’s agent.

Example B

A leaflet focuses on a constituency candidate but includes some of the party’s key pledges throughout as a way of telling voters what the candidate stands for.

There is no physically distinct part of the leaflet that does not promote the candidate, so the whole leaflet is promoting the particular candidate.

The full costs of the leaflet will therefore count towards the candidate’s spending limit, if it is made use of by or on behalf of the candidate (see notional spending), or if it has been authorised by the candidate’s agent.

The honest assessment principle

In all cases you should make an honest assessment, based on the facts, of the proportion of spending that can fairly be attributed to your campaign.

Sometimes, it may be difficult to make an exact split. For example, your telephone bill may only provide a breakdown of the cost of calls over a certain value.

In these cases, you should consider the best way of making an honest assessment on the information you have. For example, you could compare the bill with one that does not cover a regulated period.

If you are still not sure, call or email us for advice.

When you submit your spending return you must declare that the return is complete and correct to the best of your knowledge and belief. This declaration covers any assessments you have made about splitting spending.

It is an offence to make a false declaration knowingly or recklessly.1
 

Last updated: 17 April 2026