Senedd election 2026: Party spending

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Updates to our guidance

Date of update	Description of change
September 2025	Since the last Senedd election, the guidance has been rewritten into HTML. As part of the rewrite, we made the following notable updates: A new section on parties with accounting units, and how that works with party spending in a regulated period A new section on VAT payments Removing the section on splitting spending between candidate and party, as all spending to support party list candidates will be party spending Further information on the candidate’s personal expenses There are also updates to reflect legislative changes, including: Removal of references to regional elections Personal expenses incurred by party list candidates above £900 now must be paid by the treasurer

Date of update

Description of change

September 2025

Since the last Senedd election, the guidance has been rewritten into HTML.

As part of the rewrite, we made the following notable updates:

A new section on parties with accounting units, and how that works with party spending in a regulated period
A new section on VAT payments
Removing the section on splitting spending between candidate and party, as all spending to support party list candidates will be party spending
Further information on the candidate’s personal expenses

There are also updates to reflect legislative changes, including:

Removal of references to regional elections
Personal expenses incurred by party list candidates above £900 now must be paid by the treasurer

About this guidance

Under the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000 (PPERA), there are laws on fundraising and spending that political parties must follow in the run-up to certain elections.

This guidance provides information on the regulated period, spending limits, campaign spending, reporting requirements and deadlines for the Senedd election on 7 May 2026.

Candidates at the Senedd election can stand as an individual candidate or a party list candidate in one of the 16 constituencies.

This guidance applies to political parties and party list candidates only. The rules for individual candidates are different. We produce separate guidance for candidates and their agents, which can be found here: Guidance for candidates and agents: Senedd election.

When parties issue election material it must contain details known as an imprint. We have separate guidance on imprints.

Terms and expressions we use

In this guidance, we use ‘must’ when we refer to a specific requirement. We use ‘should’ for items we consider to be minimum good practice, but which are not legal requirements.

We use ‘you’ or ‘the responsible person’ to refer to the person who is responsible for campaign spending. This will be the registered campaigns officer if one has been appointed, or the registered treasurer if not.

Translations and other formats

For information on obtaining this publication in another language or in a Braille version please contact the Electoral Commission:

Tel: 0333 103 1928

Email: [email protected]

Diversity and inclusion guidance for registered political parties

Under the Elections and Elected Bodies (Wales) Act 2024, Welsh Ministers have a duty to produce guidance for registered political parties to encourage them to promote the diversity of their candidates for Welsh elections. As a result of this, the Welsh Government has published voluntary guidance for parties. For details, please see gov.wales/diversity-and-inclusion-guidance-registered-political-parties.