What information must you include in the imprint?

You must include the name and address of:

  • the promoter
  • any person on behalf of whom the material is being published (and who is not the promoter)

You must use a postal address where you can be contacted. It can be an office or business address, or a home address. You can also use a PO Box address, or other mailbox service.

The imprint must be in text form, unless it is included as a part of solely audio material. In this case, the imprint must be included as audio material.

The imprint must be legible, or in the case of audio material, audible, no matter what device is used to access the information.

In order to comply with the law, you must ensure that a written imprint is on screen for long enough that it can be read. Similarly, an audio imprint must be read at a speed at which it can be heard and understood.

If digital material which requires an imprint is published without one, the promoter and anyone on whose behalf it has been published may be liable for an offence under section 48 of the Elections Act 2022.

The promoter and anyone on whose behalf the material is being published

The promoter is whoever has caused the material to be published.

Both the promoter and any person on behalf of whom the material is being published may be an individual or an organisation.

If the material is published by an organisation, then the promoter is the organisation itself. The details of an individual are not required.

For example, if an employee of a registered non-party campaigner publishes material for the campaigner in the course of their role as an employee, then it is the non-party campaigner itself who is the promoter and whose details must be provided.

The imprint must include the details of both the promoter and anyone else on whose behalf the material has been published. This means that your own details will not always be enough to meet the imprint requirements, depending on your particular situation.

For example, if an agent publishes material on behalf of their candidate, then the imprint must include both the details of the agent, as promoter, and of the candidate on whose behalf the material has been published.

For another example, suppose someone is an agent for a candidate, and also publishes material as part of their role volunteering for a political party. Some of the material they promote will be on behalf of the candidate, and so need to include the agent’s details as promoter, and the candidate’s details as the other person on whose behalf the material has been published. Some of it will be for the party, and so need the details of the party instead.

Material could be published on someone’s behalf for a number of reasons, including:

  • the role someone plays in a campaign – for example, an agent may publish material on behalf of their candidate, making the agent the promoter.
  • they are paying for a service – for example, a social media influencer may publish their own organic material on behalf of the political party that has engaged them to do so, making the influencer the promoter.
  • they are part of a wider group involved in publishing the material – for example, a non-party campaigner may publish material on behalf of a coalition of non-party campaigners, making that non-party campaigner the promoter.

If you are being paid to publish the material, the material must include an imprint which includes the details of whoever is paying you. This is because, depending on the facts, either they are the promoter, or you are publishing the material on their behalf.

If you are an organisation that receives donations for your general operations, this does not mean that material you publish is published on behalf of your donors.

If a staff member or volunteer publishes their own material of their own accord, in their personal capacity on their own social media accounts, this will not count as being done on behalf of their organisation.

For material published by or on behalf of a party which promotes more than one of the party’s candidates or future candidates, the imprint does not need to include the details of every individual candidate or future candidate. You can instead include the party’s details in the imprint.

Last updated: 2 November 2023